


Burnt Sienna

by Flamesong, HopeStoryteller



Series: Under a Broken Moon [1]
Category: RWBY, Warframe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, Prequel, Sienna Khan Lives, Vox Faunus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:14:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23600644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flamesong/pseuds/Flamesong, https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeStoryteller/pseuds/HopeStoryteller
Summary: Adam Taurus is very good at killing. He's nowhere near as good at sticking around to make sure his targets stay dead. Exhibit A: Sienna Khan, former High Leader of the White Fang, who had enough of his bullshit and promptly got stabbed.According to Adam, she's dead. Sienna disagrees.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: Under a Broken Moon [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675519
Comments: 78
Kudos: 73
Collections: Crossover Favorites





	1. Back From the Dead

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to Vox Faunus, so it will have a little bit of Warframe mixed in even though it's primarily RWBY. Readers who are only familiar with RWBY will be fine; any Warframe characters who appear or are mentioned can simply be treated as OCs without losing much. People who know only Warframe should probably watch up through Volume 5 or 6 of RWBY before reading.

Paranoia pays off, far more often than not. Trust is important, but sometimes, one of the few people you thought you could trust kills you. For most people, once you’re dead, you’re dead. For Sienna, a carefully curated network of lies, half-truths, and her semblance mean that, if she’s careful, death isn’t permanent. A side effect of this is knowing all too well when her paranoia is proven right.

It would be nice for her paranoia to be unfounded for once in her life. But there are those that say that a semblance is an extension of one’s self, in a way. By that logic, it makes perfect sense that her semblance would be what it is: a way to undo anything, even her own death, if she’s paranoid enough to set the timer in advance.

Which of course she is. She always is, but this time… she should have been paranoid months ago, paranoid enough to avoid this before it got this bad. The list of people she knows she can trust, already painfully short, is down one. Maybe it has been for a long time. Maybe her old protege should never have made the list in the first place.

She reaches out with her aura, carefully feels around for that distinct sense of being watched. Nothing. No one else’s aura is nearby. No one is here.

Good.

She pushes herself up with her arms. They had laid her body on a makeshift stretcher, covered her with a blanket, and left her in a storage room full of large, wooden crates on pallets. They were, however, nice enough to leave Cerberus Whip nearby for burial with her. 

Her burial must not have been as high on the list of priorities as starting the second war with humanity. How typical of Adam. 

She should have seen this coming miles away. The first hint of his plans should not have been when her guards no longer listened. In retrospect, it wasn’t. Casualties are unavoidable in any revolution, but Adam always went out of his way to maximize those of the humans. It had seemed sometimes like her old protege wanted to kill humans more than he wanted to protect faunus. 

Near the end, he became much worse at hiding it. This is as much a surprise as Ghira’s daughter leaving. Blake’s departure had seemed out of the blue when it happened. That, much like this, had been coming for a long time.

Sienna gets to her feet. She picks up her whip. She wraps the chain around her forearm, as it usually is when not in use. Obviously, she’s in no position to be able to relax, but now that she has her whip back, she can’t help but relax a little. 

She’s alone. She knows she’s alone, but she checks again just to be safe. Safer, at least, nothing about this is safe. She leans back against a stack of crates, closes her eyes again, and focuses. Her current aura level is at just over half of full. More evidence that she died there, and that no one’s monitored her body since. It is heartening, at least, to know that if it comes to it she can escape death again. If she’s careful, it won’t come to that.

She activates her semblance once more, expending about ten percent of her aura to set a timer for an hour and a half. Visually, there’s no change. That done, she doesn’t hear anything nearby, she doesn’t see anything nearby, she doesn’t feel anything nearby… However, dealing with Adam will be significantly easier if she is believed dead. So, she really can’t be too careful. Or too paranoid. 

She’s still alone. Good.

Current plan: escape, don’t be recognized, don’t let anyone figure out she’s alive from the notable lack of a body, deal with Adam and possibly an entire revolutionary force gone rogue. Not necessarily in that order. The middle two could be included under escape, though, and that’s her first priority. Then deal with whatever Adam had planned.

Assuming, of course, that for once in his life Adam has a plan. He’s never been much for the big picture. Especially if he wants to attack Haven Academy.

Why would he want to attack one Academy, never mind multiple? As of several years ago, all four secondary huntsmen academies were accepting both humans and faunus students. Atlas was the final one. She remembers that well, less because of the event itself and more because she had gone out with Ghira and Kali for drinks to celebrate. It had been one of the last times they would meet as friends.

Either Adam didn’t plan this at all, or someone else is pulling his strings and Sienna has an even bigger problem on her hands. From what she does remember, it’s seeming more and more like this was planned. Sneaking a human into her base of operations wouldn’t have been spontaneous. Neither was ensuring every guard on this particular shift was loyal to Adam and not her.

Ironically, she recalls the human being the least aggressive of the group. Rare, for a human. But Adam did mention the man having a powerful master. 

She’ll have time to consider this later. Now is the time for escape, and she can think while she’s moving. Luck is on her side tonight, because the first crate she pulls open has spare uniforms inside. While the vest is very obviously White Fang attire, the pullover underneath it – essential in the chilly night air of Anima – is a simple, nondescript, dark grey hoodie.

She grabs that and a set of gloves, pulls them both on. Her scroll – Adam _hadn’t_ taken it? It’s almost like he, and the rest of the White Fang, believe her semblance to be something else entirely – is tucked into her bag, and a few quick taps open the camera app.

She pulls up the hood, and looks herself over. 

It won’t be enough to avoid close scrutiny, but it’s enough that nobody will look at her and immediately think Sienna Khan. As long as she doesn’t attract any attention, it should do for now.

Time to escape from her own base of operations. This is clearly what she wanted to do with her Friday night. Not that she could do much before, being a wanted criminal. But the point still stands: she needs to get out, without attracting much notice, and she needs a reason why her body will suddenly be missing.

Yellow eyes sweep the room. Her gaze finds the torch merrily blazing away near the entrance to this storage room, recalls the various crates full of clothing that certainly aren’t fireproof. She had been meaning to work on making the Mistral base of operations less flammable, but never got around to it. For all Adam’s ambition, he never sees the big picture. He never will. But, assuming that for once he did – he simply won’t have had enough time to deal with the possibility of a fire, nor the incentive to. He’ll have the incentive to once she’s gone.

For the first time since she died, Sienna smiles.

* * *

As it turns out, it’s hard enough to travel when you’re a wanted criminal but have the resources of the White Fang on your side. Throw in having to avoid the White Fang and the authorities, the CCT network still being down, and being legally dead, and hard suddenly becomes damn near impossible.

Sienna hasn’t survived everything life threw at her to give up at near impossible. Public airships don’t run to Menagerie, and taking one of the White Fang’s has been out for a long time. Which is why she’s on a ferry.

Now, _near impossible_ was still _doable_ , but never _ideal_. There are worse ways to travel, like smaller boats. At least in a boat of this size, she doesn’t have to worry about being splashed. 

That doesn’t keep her from staring down at the water, ears flicking irritably underneath her hood. It means she’s still on edge. This is her one opportunity to not be on edge, while the ship is out in the open ocean. Nobody in the White Fang would, in their right mind, take public transportation to Menagerie – not unless they had no other option.

Footsteps. Slow, deliberate, purposeful footsteps, not light or fast enough to be the rabbit-eared triplets dashing about earlier. 

There should be no danger to her on this ship. Unless she was tailed, somehow. Quietly, subtly, she pulls up one of her hooded cloak’s sleeves.

“Traveling alone?”

Her hand finds her whip. One quick motion, one quick lashing out, and she’ll be able to deal with this before it becomes a problem. Adam shouldn’t have known. There should be nobody following her.

Maybe there isn’t. Maybe she’s just being paranoid.

“What’s it to you?” Sienna asks. 

She turns, gives the man a cursory glance. It’s the captain of the ship, one of the few humans on board. Not long ago, she would have been suspicious because he was a human.

Now, she’s suspicious of him because he’s talking to her, not just because he’s a human. Anyone could have a connection to Adam, and he clearly no longer has any qualms about working with humans to get what he wants. Which is, apparently, a war with humanity.

Let it not be said that Adam Taurus ever had any sort of method to his madness.

“I’m just curious. I’ve found that passengers traveling alone tend to have the most interesting stories. Don’t suppose there’s any chance of getting yours?”

“Not a chance.”

Slowly, carefully, Sienna pulls her sleeve back down over her whip. Not a problem, just a particularly annoying human who doesn’t know how to mind his own business. Unfortunately, her action doesn’t go unnoticed by him.

“You a huntress?”

“Sure,” she says. Obviously she’s not _licensed_ as one, but she can handle a few Grimm.

“Hm. You know, my last trip to Menagerie, I had a couple of kids who were training for that. I had a pretty similar conversation with one of them – nice girl, long black hair, cat ears, clearly running from something, don’t suppose you would know her?”

Sienna visibly stiffens. She looks back out at the ocean, and forces herself to relax. Even so, she can’t stop her brow from furrowing.

“Blake,” she murmurs under her breath. 

That was an extremely accurate description of Ghira and Kali’s daughter, barring the ‘clearly running from something’ part. The last she’d seen of Blake Belladonna was shortly before she left. She’d been proud, and angry, but… conflicted, and nobody had known where she went.

Not even Adam, and he hadn’t reacted well at all. With that in mind, she has a bad feeling about what, or rather who, Blake was running from. If Blake is in Menagerie, she needs to be warned that Adam controls the White Fang now. And she deserves an apology for what Sienna should have seen sooner.

Sienna had taken this ship to Menagerie to warn her parents, because if Adam was willing to stage a coup against his High Leader, he would be more than willing to attack those he’d never liked in the first place. Now, with Blake in the mix…

Adam is going to go after her. It’s not a question of why, but when. He’ll use her family against her.

“How much longer until we arrive?” she asks.

“I’d say tomorrow morning, barring any Grimm attacks. Any particular reason why, or…?”

“There’s a reason.” 

Sienna just isn’t going to tell some random human what it is, regardless of how much he clearly wants to ask. He opens his mouth to do so, Sienna prepares herself to continue deflecting until he gets bored, and–

“RED ALERT!” A crew member in the crow’s nest calls. An alarm sounds, and they yell, louder, “LANCERS STARBOARD!”

Sienna has literally never been so glad to see Grimm. She crosses to the other side of the ship, and – yeah, those are definitely lancers. She counts a swarm of eight, flying fast and buzzing angrily, and…

They’re coming too quickly. The ship’s guns shoot frantically, but most of the lancers easily dodge at this range. One is caught and is disintegrated midair, but the others are still coming too fast.

If the passengers have any sense, they’ll have gotten belowdecks. Except Sienna hears a muted whimper from behind her. She looks, sees three pairs of wide eyes staring back at her in terror. It’s the kids from earlier, the girls with brown hair and rabbit ears sticking up from them. Each of them is wearing a different colored bow in their hair, and they’re–

Terrified. Clearly. What kid wouldn’t be? Except they should be below with the rest of the passengers and not up here where they can get hurt.

Sienna might have been persuaded to help with the Grimm earlier, but now she has another reason to. She unwinds Cerberus Whip, and looks again to the lancers, then to the kids.

They have about twenty seconds before the lancers get here. Sienna doesn’t waste any more of them. Instead, she says, urgently, “You need to get below. Now.”

One of the girls, the one with a red bow, looks at her with even wider eyes. “Are you a huntress?”

“Why does everyone–” She sighs. “Technically, no, but I don’t think the Grimm know the difference. I can take them, but you need to get below with everyone else. On the… count of three. Alright?”

The girl with the red bow nods, and grabs her sisters’ hands. There’s a resolve in her eyes now that almost reminds Sienna of her own, long ago. It’s seeing this resolve that lets her turn back to the lancers.

“One,” she says. 

Deep breath. In and out. Fighting Grimm isn’t like fighting humans. They’re more predictable, and they’re attracted to strong negative emotions. Which is why she thinks of Adam, lets her hatred and spite and bitterness surge to the forefront of her mind.

Adam could have been a hero for faunus everywhere. He could have been a good leader, not the kind who would backstab the people who helped him rise in the first place. Instead, he chose the path of betrayal and anger.

Sienna may have been leading a revolutionary force widely considered to be a terrorist group, but she knows how to use her anger, to direct it at those who deserve it, and she knows when enough is enough. Adam clearly never has.

“Two.” 

The lancers focus on her. They charge, and so does she. Sienna reaches the side of the ferry first. She jumps up onto the railing, whip at the ready.

“THREE!”

The kids run, and she leaps into action. A flick of her wrist sends Cerberus Whip lashing out. The chain wraps itself around the leading lancer’s abdomen. One of the darts on the end digs in, giving her all the hold she needs. She swings up underneath the lancer, and yanks down.

The lancer dissolves into black dust. Six left.

A shot rings out behind her, and another lancer evaporates in midair. Five left. Seems the ship’s crew isn’t entirely useless. With that in mind, Sienna pulls her whip to a specific angle, and fires.

The ice dart misses its target entirely, as darts fired from the end of a length of chain called a whip often do. The force of its firing, however, does propel Sienna backwards enough that she can return to the ship’s railing and attack from there. 

She lashes out again, and pulls again. Four left. Then three, and two, and the last one is too far away for her to just hit it with the whip. So she grabs a spare dart out of her pouch, aims carefully, and throws.

Sienna hadn’t bothered to check which kind of dust this particular one was loaded with, because any kind could do the job. Ice dust would freeze it solid. Fire dust would set it aflame, not that it would burn for very long. In the end, it turns out to be lightning dust, because the air crackles with electricity so potent Sienna can feel it from the ship.

The last lancer falls. Hits the waves below with an oddly satisfying sploosh. And Sienna lets out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Her heart’s pounding away in her chest as she slides up the sleeve of her cloak. She rewraps her whip around her forearm, pulls the sleeve back down.

Footsteps again. Probably the captain of the boat. Again. She doesn’t bother looking at him this time, either.

“You’re welcome,” she says.

“Thank you.” He comes up to the railing, leans on it, looks out at the now clear skies. “So, it seems I was mistaken in assuming you were a huntress. I would, however, like to know what the High Leader of the White Fang is doing on my boat.”

Sienna realizes, far too late, that she can feel the wind in her hair. Her hood fell down, at some point during the fight.

She maybe could have thought that through better. But it’s clearly too late now. She reaches for her hood, pulls it back up. Useless though it may be.

“Going to Menagerie, same as everybody else,” Sienna says. “You seem to be taking that rather well for a human.”

He shrugs. “My stepmom is faunus. Even if she wasn’t, you did save my ship.”

“Fair enough.” She puts a hand on the railing, tries not to grip it too hard. “Who else knows?”

“First Mate Skye, they’re on shift in the crow’s nest. I sent all other hands below when the lancers arrived.”

Sienna looks at him this time. “That was you shooting? Not bad.”

He laughs. “Could have been better. I’m glad you were here. So are three little girls that might not have made it below without you, and their family.”

A human? Glad she’s here? That’s a first.

“The trips are getting more and more dangerous, truth be told,” he continues. “On the last one, there was some kind of sea dragon. Sea Feilong was what one of the kids last trip told me. Nice boy, outgoing, he did help save the ship so I pretended not to notice he didn’t actually have a ticket. It’s… getting to the point where I’d hire huntsmen, if I could.”

“But there’s too many that are just as bad as the rest of the humans,” Sienna guesses. “If I could, I’d send some of the White Fang to help. Some of our members are as skilled as licensed huntsmen, if not more so.”

“What’s stopping you?”

Sienna isn’t about to tell him. It’s not like it’s hard to guess.

“If you were the leader of the White Fang,” Sienna mutters, “what would make _you_ flee to Menagerie and do everything you can to not be recognized?”

He looks at her. Doesn’t seem to get it. And then, all of a sudden, he does.

“I remember now. There was a report that you’d died,” he says. “On this ship’s last voyage to Menagerie, there was a huntress in training with black hair and cat ears. You reacted when I mentioned her earlier. Is she an enemy of the White Fang too?”

“She wasn’t. But considering who just killed me and took charge? She will be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adam: *stabs Sienna*
> 
> Sienna: this... is homophobia...


	2. Old Friends, New Tea

It’s been years since Sienna set foot in Kuo Kuana, or anywhere on Menagerie for that matter. There’s a reason for that, and a good one.

When Ghira stepped down as High Leader of the White Fang, he chose not to step down as Menagerie’s Chieftain. While the White Fang wasn’t exactly unwelcome after that, they were never exactly welcome, either. Sienna herself definitely wasn’t welcome.

Menagerie, after all, is home to the faunus who don’t want to fight anymore. Who are just… satisfied to stay away from humans, to live by denial and live cramped in a land where the Grimm are far from the only threat, or the most dangerous.

Maybe there are other reasons Sienna hasn’t been to Menagerie in a long time. But she pushes them aside for now, because Kuo Kuana is on the horizon and drawing ever-nearer. It’s far too late for second thoughts now. And yet… 

She stares at her scroll. She’s been staring at her scroll for sixteen minutes, judging by the clock in the top right corner of the screen. Her finger has been hovering over a single contact name for sixteen minutes now, waiting.

Menagerie never had a CCT Tower. In a way, now that the system has fallen, that means Menagerie is affected less. It also is, of course, a prime example of why the White Fang is necessary. A necessary evil, by some standards, but still necessary. Menagerie is a big enough settlement that it could have been a kingdom years ago. The only reason it’s not is because its people are faunus, everybody knows that. 

Scrolls always have had a local call function, however, and it’s this that Sienna is counting on. As soon as she’s close enough to Kuo Kuana, she should be able to call Ghira.

Hopefully he’ll pick up.

As luck would have it, she doesn’t get a signal until she’s already disembarked. She’s one of the first off the boat, and slipping through the crowd… relatively unnoticed isn’t hard. She checks to ensure her hood is still up, double-checks for good measure, and calls him.

She puts the scroll to her ear and starts walking. One ring. Two rings. If he doesn’t pick up, she’ll leave a message and try Kali. If she can’t get either of them, cover be damned, she’ll knock on their door and find them in person if she has to.

They had their disagreements. Big disagreements, not to mention she owes them both an apology. She owes Blake an apology, too, but Blake isn’t on the list of people she would still trust with her life, so that one will have to wait until Adam is dealt with.

Three rings, and… click. He actually picked up.

“Sienna,” Ghira greets evenly.

“Ghira,” she says in return. “Whatever you do, please don’t hang up.” 

“You have five minutes to say what you need to say and explain what you’re doing on Menagerie.”

Good enough. She takes a deep breath and launches into her spiel. Her feet carry her down the main road toward the Belladonna home, and she can’t quite bring herself to not go. It’s been a very long time. Too long.

Maybe she misses the old days. Maybe she misses her old friends. Or maybe she’s just feeling sentimental and she doesn’t at all.

Regardless. She came here to warn him and Kali, and that’s what she’s going to do.

“You remember Adam. Taurus? He controls the Fang now. He thinks I’m dead. He’s going to come for you next. If it wasn’t for… you know, I  _ would _ be dead. So, consider this your warning. He’s coming, and he makes me look downright tame.”

There’s silence for a few long moments. Long enough that Sienna does briefly pull her scroll away from her ear to check if he just hung up on her. But no, the call is still on, so she puts it back to her ear and waits. Keeps walking in silence. She just has to turn the corner, and she’ll be able to see the Belladonna home.

At last, Ghira says, “The warning is appreciated, but–”

“Holy  _ shit, _ ” Sienna swears, currently at a loss for any words besides expletives. 

She stops dead in her tracks and can’t keep herself from staring. Where the Belladonna home should be is a smoking, charred husk of a building. She gets some looks from her outburst, but fortunately nobody is curious enough to look closely.

It’s clear now what Ghira had been about to say: Adam already made his move. How did he make his move already? Unless… he had some way to convey orders from Mistral that traveled faster than a ferry could. Which he would have, Sienna can recall at least three members of her Fang that had wings and knew how to use them.

“You didn’t know,” Ghira observes.

“No. No, I didn’t. Gods. What happened? Did… everyone get out alright?”

“No. It was an attempt to assassinate Kali and I, and an attempt to kidnap my daughter and take her…”

“To Adam,” Sienna finishes. “You’re not dead if you’re talking to me. Kali? Blake?”

“Both fine, as is Blake’s… friend. Irritating young man named Sun. Heart’s in the right place, at least. Several members of the Kuo Kuana Guard were wounded by the attackers. As far as I am aware, there was only one casualty, and it was on your side. The rest of the members involved in the attack are no longer a problem.”

“Not my side anymore,” Sienna says with a huff. “Adam was pulling the strings for a long time. Too long. I guess it’s too much to hope that he was the casualty?”

“He didn’t come personally. It was Fennec Albain.”

Sienna recognizes that name, although she wishes she didn’t. She remembers him. Inseparable from his brother, both quiet but oh so passionate and willing to do whatever it took. It was that last bit that must have made them follow Adam.

Them, and… likely the entirety of the local branch of the Fang. Not just them, either. The Vale branch is practically nonexistent now, but before it was more loyal to Adam than to her. The Mistral branch is, obviously, following Adam now too. Vacuo could have gone either way, and it’ll be impossible to tell which way without going there herself.

The Atlas branch, on the other hand… hmm. There’s a possibility. It’s been nearly impossible to get messages in and out of Atlas for a long time, never mind people, and yet the regional commander based in Mantle had still kept her better updated than Adam had.

If she can get into Atlas, that branch might be a good place to start rebuilding. But first, she has Adam to deal with.

“Of course he didn’t. He has High Leader duties to attend to, and the destruction of humanity and all those who oppose him to plan. Is… there anywhere we can meet in private? There are some things I would rather not mention except in person, and there aren’t a lot of people left that I still trust.”

“There is,” Ghira says, and suddenly there’s the noise of scuffling in the background. He audibly sighs. “Not right now. Blake and her friend are sparring and I would really like to keep them from burning down  _ another _ house.”

Sienna opens her mouth, then shuts it. Then she says, “I have some questions.”

* * *

“So it wasn’t Adam who burned your house down?” Sienna asks. 

“It was not,” Kali replies. “Blake blames herself. Ghira blames Sun, despite the fact that they were in the same room during the attack.”

“I do not,” Ghira says unconvincingly, earning looks from both Sienna and Kali. He sighs and adds, “Much.”

Despite herself, Sienna smiles. She looks to Kali and says wryly, “I guess that runs in his side of the family.”

Kali fails to hide a grin, or an amused snort. “It certainly did with his father. ‘Oh, those girls are such a bad influence on you, son! You’ll never go anywhere in life if you go with that crowd!’ And yet look where you are now, Ghira.”

“You make it sound like I’ve become my dad,” Ghira mutters.

Sienna sips her tea wordlessly. She peers at Ghira over the rim of the cup, mischief in her eyes. Eventually, she says, “Well, minus becoming Chieftain of Menagerie, you certainly sound like him.”

Ghira sputters indignantly. Kali barely, barely manages to keep a straight face. Sienna just smiles.

Gods, she missed these two. It really is good to see them again, and to know they’re alright.

“Back to the house,” Kali says, much to Ghira’s relief. “We’ll manage. Better to lose the house than someone’s life.”

Sienna nods. “With the White Fang on Menagerie in tatters, and most of them in prison and going to stay there for the near future… Adam is unlikely to try again. Especially considering what he has planned for Haven Academy.”

Her gaze scans both of them, and finds no surprise. Interesting. She asks, quietly, “If you were able to get someone to talk, you know more than me. All I know is what he told me before…”

She can trust them. They know what her semblance does. Her real semblance, not what everyone assumed it was. 

“You had to use your semblance,” Kali says.

Sienna drinks more tea before nodding. Her ears go flat against her head. “If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Are you doing alright?” Ghira asks.

Sienna shoots him a distinctly unimpressed look. Kali also gives him a look, and Ghira suddenly yelps. Sienna doesn’t have to look to know she almost certainly stomped on his foot.

“I’m supposed to be dead and the man who killed me is going to use the White Fang to start a war with humanity that nobody will win. So, no. Not really.” She sighs and sets the teacup down on the table. “You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here.”

“That is one of a few questions I am currently asking myself, yes,” Ghira agrees. “You said you were here to warn us. You could have left as soon as you realized there was nothing left to warn us about.”

“I could have. We’ve had our differences in the past. Honestly, ‘differences’ is putting it lightly.” One of her ears flicks. “But that’s precisely why I need you now. You’re the only people I can be absolutely sure would never turn to Adam’s side.”

“You’re not wrong,” Kali observes. “So… Haven Academy.”

“It’s his next target. Beyond that, I don’t know much. But I’ve heard you’re planning something.”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Ghira rumbles.

“I’m not. Neither of you are pushovers, despite what some people think.”

* * *

“You’re sure Blake and Sun will be away for a while?”

Ghira sets down yet another cup of tea and nods. “They’re out training the militia, like most days. They’ve been at it for a couple weeks now, but to be honest, I’m just not sure how much it’s helping.”

“But they won’t be back home until sundown,” Kali adds. 

“Good. Then we have some time to plan.” 

“Out of curiosity, why have you been avoiding Blake like this?”

“I…” Sienna stares down at her cup. “I suppose I’m afraid she’ll see me as just the same as Adam. We haven’t spoken since before she left him, and back then…” The tips of her ears curl forward a little, and she doesn’t finish her sentence. 

“I understand. And they both had bad experiences with the White Fang at Beacon, so, perhaps it’s for the best. We won’t tell her you’re here.”

“Thank you.” Sienna takes another sip of tea. There’s an endless supply of tea in the Belladonna home. “Now, about this militia… You’ve only got five weeks left until the attack on Haven, assuming your source was correct about it being on the last full moon before the semester begins. Two of those weeks will be spent just making the trip up to Mistral on that ship, the moment it gets back here from Vacuo.”

“And in the time we have, we’re continuing to gather signups and train everyone we can.”

Sienna shakes her head. “From the list you’ve shown me, you can match Adam’s force in numbers, or even exceed them. Which means you’re doing the training all wrong. If you want to defeat this splinter cell, you’ve got to play to your strengths, not your weaknesses.”

Kali’s eyes narrow at this. “You make it sound like a pitched battle in war.”

“Because that’s the outcome we have to plan for. The worst case scenario is that nobody backs down, and you have to exterminate every last one of Adam’s followers before they launch an all-out war on humanity. Nobody wants that, but if it happens, you need to win it.”

“And how do you propose to do that?” Ghira asks. 

Sienna lets out a long breath. “Ignore the weapons training. You have higher priorities.” She gets two shocked looks at this, but continues. “You outnumber them. That counts for more than you think. It’s  _ hard _ to fight two on one, even if either of the two alone would be an easy win. Now, the White Fang is good, but most of them aren’t  _ that _ good.”

Ghira is still looking at her strangely. “These people are not fighters,” he says. “Most of them have never picked up a weapon before in their lives.”

“And that’s fine,” Sienna cuts in. “Any fool can do some damage flailing about with a sword. What you need to remember is, an invincible fool still beats a mortal master. You should be focusing on  _ defense. _ ”

“What do you mean?”

“If you try to train these people’s weapon skills, you’ll get nowhere. You simply don’t have the time to get them all up to par with the White Fang. This militia will be going up against a better armed and better trained force, no matter what you do. And no offense, but… A lot of these civilians probably don’t have it in them to actually kill anyone.”

“None taken. I actually consider that a good thing.” Ghira raises one eyebrow at her. 

“Anyway. If you try to make them into warriors, the best that can happen is trading life for life until Adam’s force is gone and your own is barely standing. And probably, you’ll do worse than that. But instead, if you build up their resilience, you can use your superior numbers to slowly whittle them down with few casualties on your own side. Sheer dumb persistence isn’t always a substitute for skill, but it can pay off better than you expect.”

“I like the idea of minimizing casualties,” Ghira says. “Preferably on both sides.”

“Then train these people in  _ aura, _ not weapons. Form a living wall to sweep Adam out of Haven. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have proper battle technique if you  _ just don’t stop. _ ”

By now, Ghira and Kali are finally starting to nod along. Maybe they’re really taking her words into account. “Besides,” she continues, “if you take a random person off the street and teach them how to take a half-dozen bullets to the chest without flinching, that’s going to be great for morale. Look at them now, they’re terrified of a fight. Don’t teach them how to kill. It won’t work anyway. Teach them how to  _ survive. _ ”

Kali’s mouth hangs open. “That’s… actually really good advice,” she says. “Thank you, Sienna.” Before the former High Leader can protest, she refills her empty mug with more tea. 

“Do Blake and her friend know how to unlock other people’s auras with their own? Do either of you know? I’d help out myself, but… that’s far too many people to know I’m alive.”

Ghira smiles at her. “You have every right to be paranoid, I understand. And I can unlock auras.” He lifts his mug and drains it in a single gulp. “I suppose I should catch them now, before we waste any more time.”

* * *

It’s a beautiful day to go defend the very people who benefit from faunus oppression. The long rainy spell in Menagerie has finally ended and the militia gathers in the sunlight, at the docks. Most carry shields. All carry weapons of some sort, though some are mere kitchen knives or pitchforks. But most importantly, none wear uniforms or masks. Their group has to be distinguishable from Adam’s, after all. And it will be.

From a quieter part of the docks, Sienna watches Blake and Sun explain the situation to the boat captain with no small amount of amusement on her part. Somehow, she gets the feeling that this was quite possibly the absolute last thing he expected from the kids that saved his ship. But he’ll agree. Particularly if they tell him what’s at stake.

Getting the militia to Mistral, then, won’t be a problem. The ferry will be crowded, but more people come to Menagerie than leave. Getting back could become an issue, but by then that won’t be Sienna’s problem anymore.

Getting the militia’s leaders to Mistral won’t be a problem either, as the Belladonnas can simply take the ferry. The problem is how Sienna herself will get there. She wasn’t able to pass entirely undetected with relatively few passengers on the ferry, and  _ nobody _ is wearing a mask or otherwise concealing their identity.

If she goes on the ferry, she  _ will _ be outed, and word will get to Adam sooner or later. The safer option would be to not go at all. With a sizable portion of Menagerie’s population gone, it’ll be even easier to lay low than it already has been. But if she doesn’t go at all, Adam could easily disappear entirely, and his trail will have long since gone cold by the time she gets there.

So, she  _ is _ going. She just isn’t going on the ferry.

“I need to be there, and I can’t go the same way you are,” Sienna says firmly. “It’ll be too crowded, and I don’t want to be recognized. If I borrow the community airship, I’ll be able to arrive sooner and scout out the situation. I’ll park it somewhere discreet and text you where it is.” She holds out a hand for the keys. 

Ghira sighs. Eventually, he starts to dig around in his robes for them, without much success. “I swear they’re in here somewhere…”

“I’m sure they are, dear.” Kali pats his arm encouragingly, before turning her gaze on Sienna. “Be careful.”

“When am I not?” Sienna is only half joking. Even so, she confirms, “I’ll be careful.”

At last, Ghira finds the keys, and passes them to Sienna. She pockets them with a friendly nod. For a few moments, they stand there, just the three of them. Like old times.

“We’d better catch up with the kids,” Ghira says finally. “They’ll be wondering where we are. You’re sure you don’t want to come with us?”

“Not now,” Sienna says. Perhaps not ever, but she does muster up a wave as Kali and Ghira leave. She won’t be returning to Menagerie anytime soon. What she’ll do next depends on, ironically enough, Adam.

If he’s dealt with, it’ll be to Atlas for her. The White Fang branch there has been cut off from the outside world since the embargo began. The commander there won’t have any idea of what’s happened to her and, more importantly, Adam won’t have been able to contact Cressa. Not that she would have followed him if he had.

The embargo is a double-edged blade, in that sense. There’s a significant chance that the Atlas branch of the White Fang is gone entirely, and there was no way to bring word of their destruction. But there’s a reason she put Cressa in charge of that branch, and not Adam. Cressa adapts, knows when to fight and when to retreat. If anyone can balance the threat of the Schnee Dust Company on one side and the Atlesian Military on the other, it’s Cressa.

And, unlike  _ certain people _ , Cressa is trustworthy. If Adam  _ had _ been able to get in touch with her, she would never have followed him, and easily could have ended up the same way as Sienna: dead, without a semblance to come back from it. On that front, the embargo is  _ almost _ a good thing.

No matter what happens, going to Atlas to rebuild is the ultimate plan. If Adam dies at Haven, she’ll just be going there a lot sooner. Otherwise… 

Otherwise, it’ll be her turn to hunt him down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case you were wondering how long it took Sienna to get to Menagerie... well, I guess you know now. :D
> 
> Blake got her taste in caffeinated beverages from her parents. 
> 
> Cressa is our first appearance from a non-RWBY character! she's the leader of a group called Steel Meridian in Warframe, sworn protectors of those who cannot defend themselves. the White Fang was a fairly natural fit for her in this canon, and would you look at that, her name kind of works for the color rule!
> 
> I'll go ahead and stop messing around in the end notes lol I've been midway through posting this chapter for like two hours now and that's two hours too long. hope ya enjoyed! leave a kudos and a comment if you did :>


	3. Hunter's Moon

It’s entirely possible that in the time since Sienna went off the grid, academy security has changed quite a bit. But there’s change, and then there’s a distinct lack of guards, or cameras, or traps, or _anything_ in and around the grounds of Haven Academy. The only person consistently on campus is the headmaster, one Leonardo Lionheart who makes Sienna’s paranoia look like nothing. 

The first time she sneaked in, she thought maybe she’d just gotten extraordinarily lucky. By now, it’s become rapidly apparent that there just _isn’t any security._ Something isn’t right here, and the timing of it all is a little too convenient.

As she sits atop the roof of one of the academy dorms, considering this, her thoughts go to the human Adam had brought to meet her. Hazel, wasn’t it? The Adam she thought she’d known wouldn’t have been caught dead working with a human, _any_ human. She was clearly wrong about a lot of things regarding Adam, but she still doubts he would willingly work with a human without a very good reason. Particularly one so clearly different from him.

So Adam has allies. Allies powerful enough to ensure Haven Academy is left unguarded at the time of his attack, and for a considerable amount of time before.

This might be a lot harder than even Sienna thought.

* * *

By the third explosive charge she’s defused, Sienna is starting to get the feeling she’s not alone. Well, obviously she’s not alone, but still. The formerly deserted campus is now crawling with Adam’s White Fang, none of whom have any idea their true High Leader is just above their heads, defusing bombs as soon as she’s certain they won’t be coming back to check on them and shooting unseen glares down at Adam.

His time will come. Soon. First, she finishes ensuring that this particular one is, in fact, defused. Next she makes sure the scarf she’s tied to obscure her face is in place, because while Adam _might_ be dying tonight, if he doesn’t she can’t risk being recognized.

Then she turns, and sees someone she hasn’t seen in a long time. Ilia Amitola, who looks at her suspiciously but sees what she’s doing and offers a quick nod. Glances pointedly down to the courtyard below, mimes slitting her throat. Sienna nods.

About half of the people there have enhanced hearing, and all of them can see in the dark as well as any faunus can. They can’t risk talking because that will draw attention upward, and that’s the last thing either of them want right now.

There may have been a reason Sienna offered to help with this, and that may have been it. Although it is very nice to see that Ilia didn’t blindly follow Adam like so many others did.

So, that leaves pantomime as a way of communicating currently. Sienna points wordlessly to the defused bomb, pulls out one of the now-useless wires, and clips it. Looks to Ilia, who nods, and motions to the other side of the school, left of the main hall.

Ilia nods again and slips away. If she has questions about who her helper is, she has the sense not to ask them now, and answering them can be Ghira’s problem. Defusing the bombs Adam’s group placed goes much faster between the two of them, until at last Sienna circles back around… just in time to see some human thrown through the thick double doors of the main hall.

Except this isn’t some human. This is undeniably Hazel, who currently has what looks like _lightning dust crystals stuck in his arms_ , and currently looks very, very pissed. Although her latter observation is something of a given, considering the former.

Through this, Sienna has been aware that there was a fight going on inside the main hall of Haven Academy—she’d seen what looked like a huntsman and some students going in before Adam’s group arrived to plant their charges, and she’d heard everything from metal meeting metal to small explosions from inside. She hadn’t quite been aware who was involved in it.

She wonders, briefly, what prompted Hazel to start fighting. It’s very brief, however, because before he can do anything himself he’s dragged in by what looks like a glowing blue queen lancer. Of all things. Probably one of the students.

The police _finally_ make their appearance—Sienna never thought she’d be glad to see them, but here she is—and every member of Adam’s group is captured. Every member, that is, except Adam himself, and his allies with Hazel.

Coward.

* * *

> _Airship is parked in a garage at 1911 Kipling Street. I’ll deal with Adam, then get in touch with the Atlas branch. Cressa never liked Adam, so she should be safe. Best of luck. Be careful. -S_

In the end, Sienna leaves the note and the airship keys tucked where either Ghira or Kali will find them—although her money would be on Kali, personally. Ghira maybe isn’t the _most_ observant at the best of times, and everyone is going to be tired after this.

Admittedly, that means Adam _too_ will be tired, which means this is the perfect opportunity to track him down and finish him once and for all. She returns to Haven Academy to start her search.

Or she would have, if halfway there it hadn’t started raining, therefore making it that much more difficult to track anyone down. A part of her, furious at the world and especially at Adam, is sure that if she’d started tracking him sooner this wouldn’t have been an issue, and that part of her might have a point. Problem is, then she’d be tired, and more likely to slip up.

This is just bad luck, and she can work with bad luck. She just needs to keep a low profile, and ask enough questions but not too many. Unfortunately, it’s clear all too soon that Adam, somehow, has managed to disappear without a trace.

Blake has not. In the time since the attack on Haven, she’s been staying in an old house on the edge of town with some friends from her time at Beacon. At least she has the sense to stay with others, although they seem to be preparing for a journey. If she was alone, Sienna would be a lot more worried about what Adam might be planning.

Unless… _that’s_ what he’s planning.

The Fang won’t have followed him. Not after Haven. However long it took that to sink in, his next target would be those he saw as responsible: the Belladonnas. None of them are exactly pushovers, but if Blake leaves with her friends for… whatever it is they were doing at Haven Academy, she’ll be all too easy a target outside of civilization.

Finding Adam might be as easy as following Blake, and Sienna hates how easy it sounds, because it won’t be easy. But if she can’t pick up his trail elsewhere, she can just follow Blake, and… wait for him to strike.

Sienna sighs. She _really_ could use a drink right now. Unfortunately, the last thing she needs is to make herself less alert, so that’s out of the question. She’s here, in a bar in the seedier areas of Mistral, not for alcohol but for food. No questions asked, just lien given and food received.

If Sienna had maybe frequented this place undercover _before_ her death, that may have a little to do with why she’s here now. It’s a good place to get information, and more importantly it _doesn’t_ have the Spiders involved. At least, not as much as some places. Which is the best you can hope for in Mistral.

Food arrives in a neat bag. Sienna passes over the lien, stands, and makes her way out. But just as she reaches for the door, someone else opens it. She shoves past him with a muttered and very half-hearted _sorry_ , only to realize halfway down the road just who she bumped into.

Is it worth interrogating Hazel about Adam’s whereabouts? Absolutely not. He either won’t have seen Adam at all, and therefore won’t know anything, or he could recognize her and pass that information on. Whoever _he_ works for, whoever the master that Adam mentioned is, that is a problem for later and quite possibly not her problem at all.

* * *

Footsteps crackle through the dry pine needles of Anima’s great northern forest. A single man walks with purpose, on no beaten path except the one his mind laid out before him, ever forward toward the only goal he has left in this life. So much has been taken from him. So much more has left him of its own accord. Gone now are all concerns of justice, or even passion. All that remains is _spite._

The faint sound of a twig snapping nearby catches his attention and Adam freezes. Is this another Grimm? He has little fear of the ever-present monsters, but even a master swordsman can be overwhelmed by a large pack, and Adam knows too well there are some fights one simply has to retreat from. Like at Haven. He’ll be back, when it’s time, to make all of them pay. But for now what matters is Blake… and her parents, and friends, and that yellow-haired _human_ who had stolen her away. They can pay first. 

Adam slowly turns his head toward the sound, keeping every other muscle still. There is no telltale black figure, no white spines or glowing eyes, only… a glimpse of grayish blue? This is certainly no Grimm. Adam places a hand on his sword and creeps around the cluster of trees, anticipating an ambush by some Huntsman on a bounty mission, ready to defeat said Huntsman and leave his body where no one would ever come looking for it. 

And at first, that’s what Adam thinks he’s facing. A tall human man, one hand on the greatsword across his back, dressed in dirty blue and white and gold in an unfamiliar but clearly ceremonial style. But this Huntsman, if that’s what he is, seems just as suspicious and on edge as Adam himself. 

“What are you doing out here?” both ask the other in unison. There’s a pause and both grip the hilts of their weapons tighter. “Have you come to kill me?”

The newcomer steps back and lowers his hand away from the greatsword, and Adam notices that his right arm is robotic – and noticeably longer than his left. “I take it that’s a no,” the strange man says. “She hasn’t sent you after me, and no one has sent me after you. My name is Ballas. You?”

“Adam.” He finally relaxes slightly, but keeps a ready stance to spring into action at an instant’s notice. “So why are you here, so far from the kingdoms? I didn’t expect to meet another soul.”

Ballas snorts. “As some would tell you, you haven’t.” He leans back against a tree. “I’m out here because it’s safer than taking a train where I’m going. Not a lot of Grimm out here, so far from any settlements where they might congregate.”

Paradoxically, it’s true that the deep wilderness of Remnant is often almost devoid of Grimm activity. The creatures of darkness focus their efforts only on humans and Faunus, and all of their creations. They ring every city and town for miles around, watching, waiting, but if one gets beyond their area of interest, encounters become rare. 

“Same,” Adam says. “And because I’m too well known to buy a ticket without being arrested. So I’m taking the slow way to track down my treacherous girlfriend, Blake.”

“Oh, what a coincidence. I’m tracking down _my_ treacherous girlfriend, Margulis. She lives in Mantle now, so I’m on my way to Argus to steal an airship.”

Adam stares at him in disbelief. “I’m on _my_ way to Argus, because that’s where Blake is headed. I believe she intends to get to Atlas, and I’m not going to let her.” He rolls his eyes behind the strip of black cloth he wears, and shakes his head. “She’s betrayed me for the last time. The moment she’s away from her team and her new girlfriend, she’s dead.”

“Your partner left you for another woman?” Ballas lifts his right hand and stares at the backs of his long fingers, as if searching for an engagement ring that is no longer there. “So did mine. I intend to kill them both, as I should have done years ago.”

Ballas steps away from the tree and starts pacing back and forth in front of Adam. “Have you ever heard of a place called Lua?” he asks. Adam shakes his head. “No? Well, not yet. One day I will build it up into a kingdom unlike any other on Remnant. I led that town as First of the Seven, and I will do so again! Margulis supported me. She helped me on my rise to power. And then after those accursed _children_ corrupted her, she started speaking out against me.”

“Blake was my loyal companion for many years as well. You do know who I am, right? Adam Taurus of the White Fang, regional commander for years, recently High Leader.” Ballas nods calmly. “Blake and I were on a mission together when she abandoned me and left for Beacon.”

“And you just let her go?” Ballas raises one eyebrow. “I put Margulis on trial for her betrayal. She refused to recant, so she was sentenced to death. I was soft and gave her a day to set matters in order rather than carrying out the sentence immediately, and then some outsider just breezed in and stole her away. Somehow she turned the rest of the Seven against me and they cast me out, so I’ve been tracking them from a distance and planning my revenge.”

“For years?” Adam looks disgusted. “I led a legion against Beacon. I took an arm off Blake’s new girlfriend. I nearly had her again just now at Haven. What have you done?”

“I’ve made many connections in Atlas and Mantle,” Ballas replies. “Including one very talented engineer who the world thinks is dead, so he’s free to do as he likes.” He displays his long robotic arm again and wiggles his fingers. “So, Adam Taurus of the White Fang, since we’re on the same journey toward the same goal, what say you to helping each other out? We take out Blake and her plus-one in Argus, then catch a ride to Mantle and do the same with Margulis.”

Adam considers the man’s words. In years past, he wouldn’t have been caught dead working with a human. He knows he can take on Blake and Yang together if it comes down to it. He’s leagues better than any of those students she’s traveling with. But there are an awful lot of them, and don’t they all deserve a proper punishment for helping Blake? Maybe an extra blade could come in handy. 

And what if Blake never separates from the others while in Argus? If they all make it off the continent? It would be easier to steal one airship than two, and any connections this man might have in Atlas could be a serious boon. A powerful ally might be worth being tied to a second mark after his job was complete… and besides, he can always betray Ballas later if he needs to. 

“You’ve got a deal… on one condition.” With a swift movement Adam unsheathes his sword, and Ballas startles and reaches for his own blade in response. “Show me what you’re capable of. A duel, cutoff one quarter Aura, no holds barred. If you can’t get me down to below half by the time I beat you, you can forget it.”

Ballas smirks and brings out his greatsword, single edged just like Adam’s lighter blade, with a slight crook in the middle. “I like your style. You’re on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh no there's two of them


	4. Revelations

Snow. So much gods-damned  _ snow. _ Right here in her train car. 

Sienna picks herself up off the wall that’s now a floor. There’s snow in her hair. Worse, there’s snow in her clothes, and it’s  _ cold. _ She shakes down her long hooded robe and brushes off what snow she can, then wraps it tight around herself again. 

Body in one piece? Check. Weapon still here? Check. Belt pouch full of extra darts for her chain? Torn open a little, but check. She’s lucky they haven’t all detonated in the crash. Although in this blizzard, a few of the blue ones going off might be hard to notice. 

So much for the Argus Limited. There are shattered bits of glass all around the cabin. The side window, now over her head, is completely gone except for jagged edges still sticking to the frame, and the smaller window set into the door below her feet is not in much better shape. If she wants to get out of here before the snow piles even deeper, her options are either to climb or to crawl. This is what she gets for staying on Blake’s half of the train. It had better be worth it. 

She opts for climbing. Sienna plucks the three Dust darts off the end of her weapon and replaces them with a single blue cartridge. A little more ice might actually come in handy, if it was put just where she needs it. She whirls the chain around for a moment and then hurls its tip up over the side of the broken window. A clink and the hiss of detonating ice Dust tells her it’s found a mark. 

Sienna gives a sharp tug on her chain, and it doesn’t budge. Outside, the other end is encased in ice and stuck firmly to the side of the train, and luckily, it holds her weight. She climbs up and out and glances around her, and immediately ducks down at the sight of all those young Huntsmen at the far end of the train. 

The yellow one pulls at her motorcycle, only to knock it over into more snow. The red hooded one grabs that weird lamp thing that the young boy had been carrying before. And Blake is there, unhurt, brushing snow out of her hair. That’s good. If she sticks near Blake, she can get the drop on Adam the second he shows himself again. 

Sienna slides down on the far side of the derailed train and makes her way down to the end to peer around at the group. They’ve picked up an old woman with a cane now. She’ll be a liability for sure, in these conditions. Sienna hopes they won’t be slowed down too much, or she may have to show herself to shepherd them all to safety. After all, if Blake dies of exposure, there’s no telling what Adam might do next. 

She darts across a small open space into the shelter of the trees. Less wind to deal with over here, and she can get close enough to hear what the group are saying. 

“Apparently, we’ve been attracting Grimm ever since we left Haven,” Blake says. It sounds like an accusation, directed… at the kid with the cane? 

“Oh, and how could I forget about that,” her yellow girlfriend chimes in. “What happened to no more lies and half-truths?”

The boy is slowly walking away from the crash site. “Yeah, I think it’s time we got an explanation,” he says without turning around. 

The boy’s eyes flash and he turns. “I did not lie to you,” he says. It’s the same voice, but different diction. Why is he making excuses after he himself wanted answers?

The Schnee challenges him. She’s treating him as a new person now as well, and says he didn’t tell them everything about the Relic. What’s a Relic? Something that attracts Grimm, maybe? The boy makes more excuses and gets yelled at by the yellow one. 

“It is true that the Grimm are attracted to the Relics.” So there’s more than one of them! And attracting Grimm probably isn’t their main purpose. “It’s faint, but undeniable. I believe it has to do with their origin, but I’m not entirely sure.” And that origin would be…? Oh, and now he’s saying transparency would have caused a panic, the classic defense used by every kingdom’s Council when it’s discovered they’ve been up to something they shouldn’t be. 

Sienna takes advantage of the group’s distraction to slip closer. Who is this child, and why is everyone treating him like an authority? Now he’s taking responsibility for releasing the official story about the attack on Haven? In which apparently, Lionheart made some ‘unfortunate missteps’ that have been covered up. Like leaving the school wide open with no security. 

“Does one lapse in judgement truly negate all of his good? Do we not all have regrets? You may have met Professor Lionheart, but you never met the man he was before Salem found him.”

Now that’s another interesting tidbit. Who is this Salem, and what do they have to do with Haven? The one responsible for it all was Adam… Sienna takes in a sharp breath in sudden realization. That man Adam brought to her, Hazel, she’d seen him fighting these same children at Haven. Adam believed that with the support of Hazel’s master, he could fight all of humanity and win. Could it be that unnamed master who had corrupted Lionheart? 

The boy who could not possibly be just a boy shouts in frustration. He’s been betrayed before. Lionheart used to work for him, whoever he is. It’s all starting to come together, except for that glaring flaw in the center. Who is this entity who’s hiding in the body of a child?

“I have reasons for the things that I do, the secrets I keep, the reason I…” He trails off and glances down at himself. “Where’s the Relic?”

“Right here.” The red one holds up the lamp. Ruby? Was that her name? It’s hard, getting only what she can overhear from a safe distance. “It got scattered in the crash.” 

The one who is not a fifteen year old boy holds out his hand, but Ruby hesitates. He wants it back badly, but he can’t come out and say so. It’s his burden to bear: another cheap excuse. Especially if it can’t do anything right now. But if not now, then when? And what?

“I need you to listen to me–” Suddenly he freezes, arm out, face pained with only his eyes moving, flicking back and forth. “Hurry!” he says. “He’s trying to stop you!” It’s his other voice again, the one who wanted answers. Clearly this boy is possessed, somehow. “He’s afraid you’ll find out what he’s hiding!”

The boy falls to his knees. Sienna can’t take her eyes off the scene, even as the wind begins to pick up and blows an uncomfortably cold blast into her face. 

“Her name is Jinn. Say her name to summon her.” 

And Ruby does. 

The wind stops. The snow stops. Each flake hangs in midair without falling. But Sienna’s own breathing and the hand she waves in front of her eyes are proof that she, somehow, has not stopped. 

Neither has anyone else. Neither has the Relic. 

Blue mist emanates from the lamp and it floats out of Ruby’s hands. It swirls out larger and larger until the lamp itself is lost within the cloud, and forms into a large figure of a human woman, entirely blue like the mist she came from. There are golden chains wrapped around her waist and more dangling from her forearms, but she wears nothing else. 

The apparition yawns and stretches as if waking from an eighty-year sleep. “Wonderful,” she says. “What knowledge do you seek?” 

There is a pause as everyone takes in the sight in front of them. “I am Jinn,” the figure states finally. “A being created by the God of Light to aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. I have been graced with the ability to answer three questions every one hundred years. You’re in luck, as I am still able to answer–”

“That’s enough!” The possessed boy shouts. 

But Jinn is not deterred. “Two questions this era. It’s a pleasure to see you again, old man.” 

The old man who looks like the youngest of the group pleads with Ruby to stop, and for a moment it seems the one Huntsman in the group will take his side… until in unison the children train weapons on their own guardian. He backs off, and Ruby looks up at the blue spirit with determination in her eyes. 

“Jinn… what is Ozpin hiding from us?”

Ozpin? Sienna knows that name. That was the old Beacon Headmaster who died in the attack last year. But from the anguished scream that escapes the young boy’s lips, it seems the true identity of the being possessing this boy is somehow him, alive again. He charges at Ruby, but a split second before he makes contact, everything disappears into white. 

Sienna is alone. The trees are gone. The ground is gone. There is nothing around her for as far as she can see, not even the people she was spying on. 

And then, a new world is painted upon this blank canvas all around her, and the Relic begins telling her a story. 

* * *

What. The absolute.  _ Fuck. _ Was all that? 

Sienna finds herself back among the snowy trees as if she had never left. The snow is falling again, as it should. The wind is blowing again, as she’d really like for it not to. Jinn is gone, and time has restarted itself. 

She finishes taking stock of herself again just in time for Ruby to ask the possessed boy – Ozpin –  _ Ozma _ – “What is your plan to defeat Salem?”

And the answer: “I… don’t have one.”

He deserved that punch the Huntsman gives him. 

Sienna watches as Ozpin, faced with his entire team angrier with him than they’d ever been before, locks himself away deep in that innocent boy’s head. But the old lady is right: it will be dark before they know it, and every one of them is spewing negativity. They need to find shelter from this blizzard. 

There’s a trail over there, and trails usually lead somewhere. Sienna follows at a distance, keeping watch for Grimm that might be attracted to all this resentment. It gives her plenty of time to think. 

She knows who Salem is now, and her full history in a world that nobody else even knew had once existed. The Brother Gods from that old fairy tale were real, but are gone. Magic is real, and still around in a limited form. And those four daughters who could use magic too… they looked suspiciously like the Four Seasons. After all, they were created by an old wizard. The fairy tale just neglected to mention that the wizard was their father. 

But most importantly… the original world had no faunus, and that more than anything makes Sienna’s blood boil. Her entire species was just an afterthought, an accident, created somehow alongside the second wave of humanity. And they had been treated like animals, like slaves, since the very beginning. 

If it were up to her judgement, she would find humans irredeemable at this very moment. Salem may be responsible for some of the chaos and division in the world, but Sienna’s people were oppressed long before the Witch came out of her isolation, and that fact hasn’t changed despite millennia of riots and civil rights movements. And besides, even if she had ulterior goals at the time, Salem had still supported the White Fang. 

Sienna’s thoughts drift to the subject of this strange magical woman, the immortal who still walked the planet since ancient times. There’s no doubt that she was wronged by the gods, and Sienna admires her tenacity. Standing up and giving an emphatic no to injustice is exactly what Sienna has devoted her life to. Plus Salem really is quite attractive… you know, as far as humans go. Maybe Sienna could seek her out someday after this Adam mess is dealt with, and hear the other side of the story. 

If it would be safe to do so, of course, and if she isn’t needed at home to rebuild what’s left of the White Fang after all the damage  _ he’s _ caused it. There’s got to be some deeper motivation Salem has, beyond destruction for its own sake. Even after an infusion of Grimm, she was capable of living a normal life for years. She’s no more of a mindless animal than any faunus is… but unlike the faunus, she doesn’t have to fight for recognition as a complete person. 

All of that is a question for a later time, and what matters now is staying near Blake until Adam shows himself… but Sienna can’t help but dwell on everything she just saw. Now that she’s one of the few people on Remnant to know  _ all that, _ does that obligate her to participate in this global scale magical conflict? Should she keep herself and the White Fang neutral, ally with one immortal or the other, or try to play both sides against each other? She can make a case for any of them, although playing both sides seems dangerous given the power of those involved. 

She might have some allies here, at least, in these children who were losing their faith in Ozpin. But she can’t reveal herself yet, if at all. Not unless either her life or Blake’s depends on it. 

And so she continues walking, and pondering everything she learned. Eventually she will have to make a choice about what to do with all this knowledge. Sienna can only hope she’s well prepared when that day comes. 

* * *

Finally, that awful squeaking gate is silent. All it took was one of Sienna’s fire dust darts, cracked open to sprinkle the explosive material into each of the hinges, and then a single spark welded the gate into its open position, never to swing shut again. 

It’s the first thing Sienna did upon reaching Brunswick Farms. Blake and her team took shelter in a large house near the center of the place, and Sienna watched from a distance and put an end to that horrible noise. She needs shelter as well – it’s dusk and the blizzard shows no signs of letting up – but first she wants to take a look around the perimeter. Then she can take any of the abandoned houses far out from the central well. 

Much of it is unremarkable. This settlement seems to be in perfect condition, except for the lack of residents. It’s a little creepy, really. Like everyone just walked away, and left everything they owned still sitting here. Even the one old truck in a garage at the edge of town, sitting covered by a tarp as if it hasn’t seen use since the initial materials were brought in to build this place. 

Sienna scrambles down a hill at the edge of the farm. There’s a small creek at the bottom, still flowing freely despite the cold, fed into by a trickle of water coming from behind a metal grate. It seems there are tunnels beneath the main living area, likely full of water in the summertime. That well probably drops into them, somewhere. 

The grate is rusty and looks weak, but it’s still standing. Actually, it looks like it wasn’t even installed properly. Half the fastening bolts are just missing, as if whoever had installed this barrier had simply given up partway through the job. 

She stares through at the darkness beyond. The sun is low in the sky, but not in the right direction to shine into the tunnels. It’s just black between the bars, except – wait… 

Sienna blinks and shakes her head. For a moment she thought she’d seen a pair of red eyes staring back at her, but on a second look they were gone. She’s probably just imagining things because she’s tired… unless… What if there  _ is _ a Grimm in there?

If there is, it clearly didn’t get in through here. Which means there must be some other exit Sienna hasn’t seen yet. Well, better to let it out here than somewhere in the middle of town. Sienna wraps her chain around the bars and pulls, and the entire grate falls down with hardly any effort. 

Does she really need to finish patrolling the entire perimeter of the farm? She’s so cold, and there are plenty of empty houses around. Maybe she should just go rest now. She shakes her head again to clear it, and moves on. She can at least put some distance between her and that tunnel before she stops. 

Sienna only makes it about halfway around from the gate before she finally gives in and takes shelter inside. She tells herself it’s because the sun is down and the wind is even stronger than before, but also… she’s just tired, and there  _ probably _ aren’t any Grimm coming for that team of angry students  _ yet. _

Whatever happened here, it happened long ago enough that no fresh food in the house’s pantry is still good. But there’s plenty of canned vegetables, likely all from the farm itself, and even some salted meat that still looks vaguely edible. It takes a little while for the wood-burning stove to get going, but before long Sienna has a hearty stew. Honestly, she’s made a little too much for the hopefully only one night she’ll be staying here. 

No sense staying up late. There’s not a lot to do here anyway, except read these people’s boring old books and diaries. And Sienna has no interest in doing that. 

She heads upstairs, finds a bedroom, pushes the door open, takes half a step in – and jumps back in shock, instinctively activating her semblance with a half hour timer as she did before every fight. 

But nothing happens. There is no danger, nothing coming for her. Only a dead body in the bed, dry and mummified, with no obvious cause of death. As much as she normally hates cold weather, Sienna is suddenly glad it’s winter, when bugs are dead and all of nature is slow. She can’t begin to imagine how bad it would smell in here if this body had actually started to rot. 

She gingerly pulls back the covers, but still there is no trace of foul play. No wounds, no bruising, no sign of discomfort as if the person had died of poison or had even struggled at all. 

Sienna cancels her semblance timer, and the fraction of her aura that was sequestered for its use returns. As far as she can tell, this person simply died in their sleep peacefully. The only cause she knows, besides a few illnesses she obviously can’t check for now, is an overdose of sleeping pills – and if that’s the case, well, that’s unfortunate but it means there’s nothing to worry about. 

She grimaces, and gently lifts the dead body from its place. It’s very light, dehydrated over time in the dry winter air, very different from the tragic occasions when she’d had to return a fallen White Fang soldier home. She lays it down along a side wall and pulls the sheet off the bed to cover it. After all, this person certainly isn’t using the bed anymore, and if she’s going to be spending a night in this creepy place anyway, Sienna would rather be comfortable than on a couch downstairs. 

Sienna has, despite all her attempts to the contrary, never been an early riser. Not willingly, in any case. Which is why she set an alarm for herself on her scroll and tucked it under the pillow before she went to sleep.

The problem here is that she set her alarm for sunrise. It’s not sunrise. If she had to guess from the way the sunlight’s streaming in through the windows, it would be mid-morning. Either her alarm didn’t go off at all, or she slept through it entirely, and either is concerning.

But… is it really?  _ Is _ it really  _ that _ concerning? It snowed last night, but clearly isn’t now, and she’ll be able to follow their tracks easily in the fresh snow. If they were smart, they would have left at daybreak, which would mean they’ve already left and it’s not  _ that _ urgent, she can sleep a few more minutes and catch up with them later.

She  _ can _ , but she won’t. Tired as she is, she  _ needs _ to get up. So, eventually, she does. She forces herself to her feet, checks her scroll—she’d forgotten to set the alarm entirely, apparently, was she really  _ that _ tired last night? It can’t have been that late, she shouldn’t still be this tired after a good night’s sleep.

Clearly she  _ hadn’t _ gotten a good night’s sleep, for one reason or another, and the last thing she wants to do is even  _ look _ outside, nevermind  _ go _ outside. It’s too bright, the bed is probably still warm, she can just go back to sleep…

She pinches herself, shakes her head, blinks hard. She is  _ not _ going back to sleep. If Blake’s group has already moved on, she’s going to catch up to them. If they haven’t, she’s going to keep an eye on them and follow when they do. Either way, she’s not staying here any longer than she has to. Hopefully the students have the sense to do the same.

Cautiously, she peers out through an upstairs window. Good. They  _ are _ still here, with a trailer ready to hook up to the yellow-haired girl’s motorbike. Blake is sitting on the porch steps of the main house with the possessed boy, exhaustion clearly visible in her every movement. In  _ everyone’s _ every movement. Everyone is slow-moving, clearly tired, and Sienna is willing to bet if she could hear them clearly they’d be talking slowly too.

There’s something suspicious about that. Sienna not sleeping well, that’s not new.  _ All of these kids _ not sleeping well? Something’s not right here. Or, actually, of  _ course _ something’s not right here, they all just had several earth-shattering revelations and one quite literally moon-shattering. Who  _ would _ sleep well after that?

Still. Sienna doesn’t like this. Which is why she slips downstairs as soon as possible, out a side door, and comes within earshot just in time to hear the huntsman say, “Let’s hook this thing up and—”

And  _ there’s _ the unmistakable sound of air escaping a tire. Sienna peeks around the corner and sees said huntsman groan. 

“You people are just beacons for bad luck, aren’t you?” The old woman asks.

The huntsman doesn’t verbally respond, just clenches his fists and walks off. He takes a seat in front of a wood pile, already reaching for a flask.

“I’m starting to think,” the yellow-haired girl takes a seat against the well, “the universe just doesn’t want us getting to Atlas.”

Ruby sighs. “It’s just a flat tire. I’m sure there’s a spare.”

“It’s not just that. It’s everything. Storms, crashes, monsters… I’m  _ so _ tired.”

“Me too,” Blake agrees. “It feels like we’re always having to fight to get by.”

Isn’t that…  _ kind of _ in the job description for being a huntsman or huntress? Sienna sees her point, she really, really does. But still. This kind of attitude is exactly the kind of attitude Sienna doesn’t want in the White Fang.

“Yeah. But that’s what we signed up for,” Ruby says, and Sienna’s opinion of her goes up fairly dramatically for a human.

“We signed up to save the world,” the possessed boy counters. “Not just… delay the inevitable.”

“Last night, I…” The Schnee looks away, frowning. “I couldn’t stop thinking. Why are we even going to Atlas?”

Uncomfortable looks all around. Evidently she hadn’t been the only one thinking that.

“Weiss,” Ruby says, “we  _ have _ to.”

“Why?” Yellow girl stands up. “Ozpin hid the Relics behind giant doors under enormous schools. But… how long would it take Salem to find a lamp in the middle of nowhere?”

“But—the Grimm might—”

“They’d find it  _ eventually _ , sure. But bury it or just throw it down the well, it would take years. It might not even happen in our lifetime. But we could be done with it  _ now _ .”

Ruby nods slightly, then again, seemingly agreeing. She detaches the Relic from her belt, hesitates, moves to hold it over the well. Mumbles something to herself, inaudible at the distance Sienna is listening from.

Something about this strikes Sienna as being a bad idea, but it’s not even her problem. It shouldn’t matter to her. The only thing that  _ should _ matter is Blake staying safe, and continuing to carry the Relic actively puts her in danger since it apparently attracts Grimm. So throwing away the Relic should be a good thing.

Which is why it doesn’t make sense why she’s relieved when Ruby apparently regains her resolve, and moves to pull the Relic back. It makes even  _ less _ sense when Ruby screams and, in her panic, drops the lamp into the well.

Then she  _ keeps _ screaming about there being  _ something _ down there, something looking at her. And refuses to leave without the lamp. Ruby and Weiss, Blake and Yellow—Sienna still hasn’t caught a name for her—jump down into the well. More importantly,  _ Blake _ jumps down into the well.

There might be nothing in there. Ruby  _ might _ have been hallucinating. But Sienna remembers now, a pair of red eyes she  _ might _ have been imagining. Might have been, except two people hallucinating the same thing at different times in the same place… 

There’s something in the tunnels underneath the farm, and she’s willing to bet the well connects up with the entrance she found on the outskirts. Grimm, has to be. And whatever  _ was _ in there clearly didn’t leave overnight, not if Ruby saw it now.

None of those girls are in any condition to fight Grimm right now. Sienna’s not sure even the actual huntsman’s in any condition to fight Grimm, and considering that he immediately beelines for the main house to get drunker, she’s probably right about him. Which is why, as soon as she’s out of sight around the corner again, she  _ runs _ .

Well. More charitably it’s a slow jog, but she’s fairly tired too and she needs to conserve her energy. The grate isn’t far, and she notes with some satisfaction that water is flowing out of it and downhill from here, into a small, cold creek. The lamp should be coming this way, which means the girls will be coming this way,  _ and _ the Grimm will be coming this way. 

Sienna unwinds her whip and, before she can change her mind, steps inside. This isn’t her first time in a sewer, and it probably won’t be her last. But the good thing about everyone who used to live here being dead is that this is quite possibly the cleanest and least stinking sewer she’s ever been in.

The  _ bad _ thing about everyone who used to live here being dead is that  _ something _ killed them. Could very easily be the something that Ruby saw down here, and could very easily be some kind of Grimm. But that doesn’t explain why she—why  _ all _ of those kids, apparently—are so, so  _ tired _ .

Fortunately, or quite possibly unfortunately, she’s barely entered the sewers when she sees them. Eyes. Red, glowing eyes peering out from skull-like faces, stuck atop and around a mass of black body and bone. They’re blocking the way forward, and they’re all slowly,  _ slowly _ turning to face her.

If each set of eyes is an individual Grimm, because these certainly fit the usual edgy look, there’s… five, six, eight. Ten at least, and they can’t possibly move fast in that clump but they  _ are _ moving. She doesn’t see the Relic, or any of the girls, and Cerberus won’t be effective in close quarters like this. Not against this many.

New plan: lure these… whatever these Grimm are… outside. The exit is too small for the whole mass to fit through, and they’re slow. She takes a cautious step back, then another, eyes not leaving the frontmost one. She’s never seen Grimm like this before.

Are  _ these _ what killed those humans? They don’t seem particularly strong, or ferocious. Although any Grimm would pose a threat to an untrained human, these are really,  _ really _ slow. Sienna glances over her shoulder to see how close she is, finds the exit’s closer than she thought…

And then they  _ scream. _

In an instant, her legs give out beneath her. One moment, she’s resolved to keep going, tired and all, it’s not like it would be the first time she fought something while sleep deprived. The next, she’s on the ground with a faceful of freezing sewer water and her head spinning. She grits her teeth, forces herself up on her elbows, and looks back.

They’re closer. They’re  _ much _ closer. Sienna tries to get to her feet but her legs don’t work like they used to before. So she crawls instead. What looked so close before the scream now looks so far away,  _ too _ far away. She’ll never make it in time…

But she’ll never make it at all if she doesn’t try. She…  _ has _ to try. She keeps crawling, this time without looking back. She can make it. She  _ has _ to make it, or these  _ Grimm _ will have succeeded where the Schnee Dust Company, the militaries of three separate kingdoms, and Adam all failed. And Adam will never  _ know _ he failed.

Her hand finds the edge of the tunnel. She grabs for purchase, starts to haul herself out as quickly as she can when any and all energy is completely spent.

Just when she’s made it, they scream again. Louder. The death grip she had on the edge loosens. Sienna’s eyelids droop, even as some part of her screams and rails against it. That part gets quieter and quieter until finally, there’s nothing.

Sienna falls again. Headlong, this time, and right into more freezing water, flowing downhill. The sewers empty into a creek, maybe, but she can’t find it in her to care about the specifics. She can’t find it in her to care at all. What’s the point? She’s even wetter than she was before, but that’s fine. It doesn’t really matter. The water’s so cold, but that’s… that’s fine too. It’s fine. Everything’s… fine.

The current’s carrying her further downhill. Deeper than the sewers, further away from the Grimm and… well, further away from the farm too. Further away the people she needs to… protect? No, that’s definitely not right. Watch. She needs to watch them, but it’s not that big a deal, it’s… 

Not. Fine. It’s  _ not fine. _ This is  _ not fine _ , nothing  _ about _ this is fine, not drifting farther and farther away from Blake and her companions and  _ definitely _ not being in  _ icy water _ . Why would she  _ ever _ think that was fine? Fully aware now, she grabs out for something, anything. Her hand catches a tree branch, and she pulls.

Out of the water. Still fucking  _ freezing _ , and  _ wet _ . She rubs her eyes, looks back up the hill. Finds, to her dismay, that she’s got a  _ long _ walk ahead of her. It means she’s got a long walk ahead of her to figure out what the  _ fuck _ happened.

She didn’t want to get out of bed, and she’d put money on none of the kids wanting to either. Those dead humans died  _ in _ their beds, or at least the ones she saw. She stayed away from the main house for obvious reasons.

Those Grimm… they screamed, and she felt hopeless. She suddenly wasn’t able to do anything, and that is  _ not _ an experience Sienna cares to repeat. She hadn’t been thinking clearly for some time before that. Not since… she  _ arrived _ . And those Grimm might have been down there for a long,  _ long _ time.

So those Grimm just… make you exhausted, to the point where you can’t even stand. Never mind fight. Which does  _ not _ bode well for Blake and her friends. Distance is going to be the key here. She’ll need to pick up new darts in Argus, but better to be alive and need more ammunition.

By the time Sienna makes it back, there’s no Grimm to be seen in the side entrance, and most likely none near the well either. The house is, however, on fire. She scans the crowd, looking mainly for Blake but more relieved than she’d admit to see Ruby and Weiss dragging the drunken huntsman out and onto the trailer. With everyone on, Yellow’s motorbike roars to life, and they speed off.

Sienna has to follow them, and she will. First things first, she needs dry clothes, and to  _ not _ be caught by those… things, again. After that, well. There was a truck in one of the outermost buildings she found last night. Getting it working shouldn’t be too difficult with most, maybe even all, of the Grimm on fire.

She feels a  _ lot _ less tired than she did. But she does still feel it a little bit. Whether that’s just lingering aftereffects or if not all of them are dead, Sienna wouldn’t stick around to find out even if she  _ didn’t _ have people to follow.


	5. Breath Before the Plunge

Sienna has never in her life been so glad to see civilization. Nearly dying to soul-sucking Grimm in the wilderness can do that to you, even if you know better. People means, in any place but Menagerie, a  _ lot _ more humans than Sienna would like on a good day. Argus is a combination, culture-wise, of Mistral and Atlas, two of her least favorite places on Remnant.

People also means, however, that it’s a lot easier to tail a certain group of noisy kids, their huntsman chaperone, and the little old lady that strangely enough hasn’t ditched them yet. There might be more to her than Sienna thought, for a human anyway.

She leaves the truck outside Argus, and as an afterthought, the extra can of gas with it. She might not need it again, but the Fang has never had a significant presence here. In the long run, maybe someone could use an old truck in decently working order. She can’t see herself using it again anytime soon, but you never know.

The group she’d been following meets up with their friends. Apparently one of their friends had family here. Sienna tails them to the house and then, once she’s sure that  _ is _ in fact where they’re staying, she leaves for supplies. Extra dust darts and some other things.

Sienna has never exactly  _ liked _ spying on people who aren’t her enemies, but sometimes it’s as necessary as the violence the White Fang is so detested for. In many cases, it can help prevent said violence, and therefore protect her people. Of course that was before she was murdered, but the idea still stands.

Does she necessarily  _ want _ to spy on Blake and her friends? No. Does she need to? Yes, in order to stay one step ahead of Blake and therefore one step ahead of Adam. He could be anywhere, and while she doubts he’ll strike in Argus, it’s only a matter of time until they leave.

So: darts, and a set of hidden microphones. A perfectly normal shopping list.

* * *

For some time now, they have walked in silence. Two men, detested by their worlds and spurned by the ones they claimed to love. Adam Taurus, formerly of the White Fang, and… Ballas. Who Adam still knows very little about, save the fact that their situations are as similar as they could get. Right down to each one’s traitorous love trying to replace them with another woman, or several. 

Ballas isn’t terrible, for a human. Were he a faunus, and had Adam met him  _ before _ he was betrayed, he would have been just the ally the White Fang needed. Now, he’s just the ally Adam needs, but he’s still an ally Adam knows far too little about.

Their agreement is based on strength, not trust, and Ballas’s past doesn’t matter in dealing with Blake. But when they come to Atlas… that may be a different story entirely.

At last, Adam looks over at him, opens his mouth to ask—and Ballas’s face immediately contorts in rage. He glares, but not at Adam.

“I  _ know _ you can’t hear me, my wilted love,” he all but hisses into the air. “But your time is coming. You and your precious huntresses will perish, and I’ll make you watch them die.”

Now Adam’s curiosity is heightened even more. “What was that?”

“ _ Margulis, _ ” Ballas spits. “Her semblance is telepathy to anyone she loves. Our connection is still open, and yet she denies our bond and consorts with huntresses in Mantle.” He scowls furiously at the sky. “She taps in every so often to curse at me and rub her supposed ‘freedom’ in my face, and she  _ will _ pay for it.”

“Ha! What a useless semblance! She should be  _ easy _ to take down when we find her.” Adam smirks. “And until then, can’t you make better use of that connection?”

“Sadly, no… It’s one way only.”

“What about your own semblance, then? What is it?”

“Not something I’d ever use on the likes of  _ her. _ My semblance keeps me alive. So well, in fact, that I’ve lived a hundred and eighteen years already and I’ve still got thousands ahead of me.”

Suddenly, Adam can feel his long term plans shifting. “You… what.”

If this was true, maybe betraying Ballas would have to involve something other than killing him. It was now more important than ever to find Blake before she left Anima. So he could have his ally’s help, and then ditch him on the flight to Solitas. One or the other of them could fall out of the airship, and it wouldn’t much matter which. Anything to keep them separate and excuse Adam from any obligation to keep working with this human. 

“That’s right,” Ballas says, snapping Adam’s attention back to the conversation at hand. “My father was the last Emperor of Mistral. I was born to rule, and I will. These modern Councils won’t last forever.”

“You…” It takes a lot to render Adam Taurus speechless, but this human seems to have done it. “How?”

“My semblance swaps bodies.” Ballas flashes a smile. “When I get old, or too badly injured, I find a new body I like and jump in. I maintain a perfect continuity across lifetimes, and the other guys, well, they get stuck with the leftovers. No wound, nor age, nor even the Great War could kill me.”

“You fought in the Great War?” 

“Not at first. My father didn’t want his precious  _ princess _ getting hurt.”

“…What?”

“Oh, yes.” Ballas rolls his eyes. “How fortunate I was with this semblance, being able to replace the feminine body I was born with.”

Well this is just one revelation after another. Adam did want to know more about his new ally, but… 

“Finally I was sent to oversee the Vacuo campaign,” Ballas continues. “We were rather short on commanders by that point. That should have been our victory. To crush Vacuo and then march on Vale. But Vale’s army… Vale’s  _ king _ …” 

He shudders at the memory. “With his crown and his scepter and his blasted  _ sword _ . He divided his forces into five parts. Took one himself, and then had these four women lead the others, every one of them with flaming eyes and unimaginable control over the elements. I saw one fall, and the girl next to her lit up in her place. Then I killed one myself and stood over her as she died, and… nothing.”

Adam snorts. “Expecting it to work like some sort of magic? Kill a witch and gain her power? Magic isn’t real.”

“Unfortunately not. If it were, I’d bring old King Oswald back from the dead just to kill him again myself. Damn him and his Councils to the Void!”

“So you’re still mad about the old war… but taking over Mistral and then the world can wait until after you’ve dealt with Margulis. She must really be something special.”

_ “She’s _ the reason I haven’t yet. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have been set back nearly to the Great War itself.” Ballas’s bitter tone manages to sound different from his bitterness at the old war. He has quite a repertoire of negativity, always with the perfect nuance of hate ready at any notice. “Her, and that bird woman who couldn’t mind her own business.”

“Bird woman?”

“Not a faunus, just her name. I forget exactly. I hired her to protect the town from Grimm after the…” Ballas spits on the ground. “After those  _ abominations _ were created. Those vile blasphemies against life. Children, once, but not human anymore. Grimm in the shape of children, nothing more.”

Human children who became Grimm? That’s just what Adam doesn’t need right now. Humans are bad enough when they’re normal. 

Ballas must have picked up on his skeptical look, because he continues with clarification. “Lua has a lake of poison, forbidden to all… water tainted with Grimm ichor. Those foolish children built a raft and went straight out into the mouth of hell. No rescue could be sent. And then, no rescue was needed, as they all dove in and swam to shore. They came out pale and scarred, and when the Grimm next came, the beasts treated them as their own.”

Adam is speechless once again. Can this man get any weirder? He’s starting to think running into Ballas was not the stroke of luck he had once considered it. But for now at least, they’re stuck with each other. He’ll have help in giving Blake what she deserves. And after that? 

After that, all bets are off. 

* * *

_ Adam is tracking Blake. I've been tracking them both. They're going toward the same place I was meaning to anyway. As long as Blake is with her group, she'll be fine. If not, I'll protect her, but I think I can draw Adam out. By the time you get this letter, he’ll have gotten the same thing he did to me. Assuming, of course, you do get this letter. Long-distance communication isn’t exactly reliable these days, although when was it ever when we were concerned? _

_ You already know what my further plans are, and why even the faintest hope of staying in touch is going to be hopeless very, very soon. A letter is not the place I should be saying this, but I wish you the best with your approach. At this point, it’s worth another try. _

_ I’ll give our polar bear friend your regards when I see her. -S _

With her letter written and anything confidential omitted or only vaguely referenced, Sienna drops it in a public mailbox and wastes no time in returning to her position across the street from the Cotta-Arc home. Some discreet asking around had confirmed that the usual inhabitants were three humans, Terra Cotta-Arc and Saphron Cotta-Arc as well as their son Adrian. Saphron in particular looks very similar to one of Blake’s friends that had gone ahead, and while Sienna isn’t a betting woman, if she was she’d put money on those two being related.

As it is, Sienna has a problem. In a big city like Argus, and in a home with multiple others, Blake is safe from Adam and therefore he won’t make his move. She’s also, however, safe from Sienna being one step ahead of her when she does eventually separate from the others, and therefore two steps ahead of Adam.

Right now, the best solution she has is watching and waiting for an opportunity. And, eventually, she has it.

* * *

Sienna doesn’t know for sure why the possessed boy had slipped out the front door with his head hanging, hands in his pockets, and a hunted look in his eyes. She may not know for sure, but she has a pretty good idea that it has something to do with Jinn, the dead man inside his head, and much of what they thought was true being lies and half-truths at best. Evidently Blake’s group had informed the others, and they’d taken it about as well as anyone would.

She watches as the possessed boy looks around nervously, pretends to be more interested in her scroll when he looks her way. It looks like this is, in fact, the boy and not Professor ‘Honesty? What’s That?’ Ozpin, because from what little she’d seen of Ozpin he carried himself with a bit more authority. Even at the end, before he supposedly locked himself away—and Sienna isn’t quite buying that, but it’s really,  _ really _ not her problem—he’d never quite come across as nervous. More angry, and bitter.

So this is the boy, although she hadn’t ever caught his name. She gets it about ten minutes later, once he’s long gone, when the other kids spill out into the street calling for  _ Oscar _ .

_ Oz _ pin,  _ Os _ car, that’s probably not a coincidence. Particularly not when she considers  _ Oz _ ma as well, but she’s trying not to think too hard about most of that at the moment. Killing Adam is her first priority, and with the kids splitting up into groups to look for Oscar, that’s an empty house.  _ Finally. _

The street is empty soon, as streets generally are at this time of day. It’s still light out, but she can work with that. She tucks away her scroll, crosses the street, and tries the door.

Locked. Unfortunately. But there’s a spare key tucked under the doormat, and Sienna lets herself in from there. Hopefully, Oscar’s made himself scarce enough that nobody will find him for a while. At least for long enough to set this up.

She plants a microphone in the main room first, taped carefully underneath the couch. Another one goes in the kitchen, a third in the back garden, and a fourth close to the front door. She’s on her way upstairs, with her scroll still on the frequency of the fourth microphone, when she hears the door opening.

_ Shit. _

She climbs as quickly as she dares to the landing, then drops to the carpeted floor. If she was the religious sort, which she  _ definitely _ isn’t now, she’d pray that whoever is here won’t be coming upstairs.

“Hello…?” Calls a hesitant voice. “Is anybody home?”

Oscar’s back. She peers down to see him in a new, much greener outfit, looking around and rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. Eventually, he shrugs, heads to the kitchen, and—judging by the sounds that start to come through her kitchen mic—starts to cook something.

She places the upstairs microphones almost too quickly, then makes a run for it. Not a moment too soon, either—she’s scarcely returned to her table at the cafe across the street when the drunken huntsman stumbles down the road, unsuccessfully tries to recall how a doorknob works, and eventually passes out on the steps.

Even Sienna has to wince at that.

* * *

The kids return midway through Sienna’s own meal, although the casserole Oscar apparently started making sounds a lot more appetizing than five bags of chips and a can of Dr. Piper. But food is food, and discretion is a lot more important than said food being particularly nutritious.

Still. There was a reason Ghira was usually the one cooking, and why after he and Kali left, Sienna started getting a whole lot of takeout. She hasn’t exactly had time to really learn how to cook between… well, everything. It’s on her bucket list. But there’s a lot of things on her bucket list, and all of them are second to equal rights. So: chips and soda. She’ll live.

“Actually, I think I have an idea,” one of the kids says. Bit hard to tell from voice alone, but she’s pretty sure it’s the one that’s tall, blonde, and scraggly. “But… it’s sort of a no-going-back kind of idea.”

“Well, let’s hear it,” Ruby says, determination evident in her words. Sienna raises an eyebrow and, as she watches her scroll, tears open a second bag.

“With Cordo on watch, only Atlas airships have the clearance to leave for Solitas. So… we…  _ steal _ an Atlas airship.”

Sienna chokes on her chips. They’re going to  _ what? _

Well, steal an Atlesian airship from the heavily-guarded Argus military base, apparently. The thing about the plan, as she hears more and more of it, is that it  _ could _ actually work. It almost certainly  _ would _ work, if it wasn’t for one crucial detail: Blake is being sent to disable the base’s short-range radar, alone.

It would be the perfect time for Adam to strike, if he knew about it. He won’t know about the rest of the plan, but he’ll certainly have been waiting and watching for Blake to separate from the others. And when she does…

When she does, he’ll be waiting for her, and Sienna will be waiting for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I've had ap exams (physics is tomorrow, if I die Flame's got this) and Flame's been working on their fic [Watching the World Burn](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23707105/chapters/56923189), a side fic to their absolute MASTERPIECE [Threading the Needle of Destiny](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20353327/chapters/48262228), but we're bACK and Burnt Sienna is actually complete in drafts so??? expect more soon??? :D
> 
> (Vox might be a bit longer. we've had quite a bit of it done for a while and then life was like HAHA VIBE CHEEEEECK and is it obvious I'm falling asleep at my keyboard? whoops. I should probably stop messing around in the author's notes and actually post this. anyway, love y'all, and I think y'all know what's coming next chapter so bE READY IT'S AWESOME <3)


	6. Nevermore

It’s a lovely morning for murder. There’s still snow on the ground in and around Argus. The wind from the ocean is chilly, and if Sienna didn’t need her hooded cloak for disguise, she’d certainly need it for warmth. But it will only slow her down once the fighting begins.

_ Maybe _ Adam will go down quickly, but somehow she gets the feeling he won’t. He definitely won’t if he gets to Blake before she does, which… unfortunately, it’s just a little bit hard to catch up with a motorbike on foot, particularly if you’re trying  _ not _ to alert those  _ on _ the motorbike that you’re there.

By the time she catches up with Blake’s yellow girlfriend—she  _ still _ hasn’t caught her name, unfortunately—Blake’s long gone in the direction of the radar tower. Yellow is sitting cross-legged next to her motorbike as Ruby gives instructions over comms. From the sound of it, everything is going perfectly to plan… for now.

It’s a lovely morning for people to get exactly what they deserve. Specifically, for Adam to finally get what he deserves, and for Blake to get what’s been coming to her for a long time.

_ “She has separated from the girl on the motorcycle, and is heading toward the radar tower,” _ Ballas says over comms. _ “Want me to deal with the other one? Yellow hair, prosthetic arm, not as advanced as my own of course. Looks very much like who you described.” _

“Not yet,” Adam replies. “Keep an eye on her for a little longer, then join me at the waterfall we scouted earlier. I’ll get Blake there. We’ll deal with her after Blake is dead.”

On that note, Adam hangs up, and begins to scale the tower himself. He has five minutes, if that, until Blake arrives. She’ll have no idea what she’s getting into until it’s far too late to escape. Run, yes. That’s part of the plan. But not escape. 

As for security? He’s killed more humans in less time before, and he’ll do it again.

* * *

Blake’s heart hammers in her chest. She grips Gambol Shroud in pistol form almost tight enough to ignore the way her hands are shaking. She should have known. She should have  _ known _ Adam wouldn’t just leave, wouldn’t die quietly somewhere far away from her. She should have known he’d… how did he even know where she’d be?

Unless he’s been following her this whole time. Which of course he would. He doesn’t give up on anything. He never has. Why would he start now?

She’d had a feeling of being watched for… since Haven at least. Of course people are going to look sideways at the girl holding her head high for the first time in far too long if she has a second set of ears. At Brunswick Farms, she’d thought it was the Apathy, but maybe… 

This is the first time she’s been alone since Haven.

“You’ve been  _ waiting _ for me to be alone,” Blake accuses, because right now? Anger is better than despair. “You’re too afraid to face my friends, but  _ I’m _ fair game. Is that it?”

“Hmm…” Adam shifts his sword to one hand, taps his chin thoughtfully. “No. Your humans are next. Assuming, of course, the Atlesian military doesn’t do it for me. I heard something about the radar?”

Blake’s eyes go wide before she narrows them again, grips her gun tighter. “I won’t let you touch them.”

Adam only smiles. He takes one step, then another. Blake shoots. Uselessly. Her first shot and second are blocked by Wilt’s blade. Her third finds its mark in Adam’s face, but glances off his aura harmlessly, and then his hand’s around her throat, and they’re over the edge.

And they’re falling. Blake’s back on her feet almost before she’s hit the ground, shifting her weapon into a katana and glaring at Adam, who’s getting up with Wilt already in hand. There are  _ so _ many things she wants to tell him, the vast majority of which involve some variation of  _ fuck off _ .

She says none of them. She charges while he’s open, except he’s  _ not _ . Still on one knee, Adam blocks and shoves her backwards, and the fight begins anew. Every strike is blocked or absorbed harmlessly, and she knows far too well that all she’s doing now is making him stronger.

Blake kicks off him and runs. More accurately, she swaps her weapon’s form from a sword to a scythe and grapples away. She needs to buy some time, and the best way to do that…

…is by running away.  _ Again. _ She is so,  _ so _ sick of running away. 

She needs to get somewhere more open. Somewhere she can take Adam on, once and for all. There’s the sound of running water nearby—a waterfall?

Adam comes from the side. Blake dodges, barely. Except, as the remnants of her tailcoat flutters to the ground, cut clean off her back, she realizes she didn’t dodge at all. He strikes again, and she throws herself out of the way with her semblance, and runs. Different direction, toward the waterfall, and now Adam seems content to chase her and let her tire herself out.

He can’t know what’s there, he doesn’t have another pair of ears to hear it with. Unless, somehow, he does. Maybe he scouted it out beforehand. Maybe she’s just being paranoid.

Time’s up. There’s a natural arch of stone devoid of trees, and Blake’s just run out onto it. She turns back to face Adam, scanning the area as she does. There  _ is _ a waterfall to her right, a sharp dropoff to the left, and more forest behind her. Somewhere that way is Yang, but Blake can’t count on her for help when she dropped the ball. The others are going to need all the help they can get with whatever Cordovin is doing, because she’s undoubtedly doing  _ something _ .

It’s better, maybe, that Yang’s not here. If anyone can take Adam down, it’s got to be Blake herself. As unwilling as she’d be to admit it out loud, nobody else knows his skills, his fighting style, like she does.

She’s got the best shot of anyone. She has to do this, for everyone he’s murdered, and everyone he’ll murder next if she doesn’t stop him. Yang, Ruby and Weiss. Ren and Nora, Jaune and Oscar, Maria, Qrow… if she can’t stop him, no one will. There’ll be no one left that can.

Sienna Khan could have, if she hadn’t trusted him right up until her murder. That was probably the most horrifying thing to learn from Ilia: that when they’d discovered the plot to assassinate Sienna, she was already dead. Even after Blake left, she’d respected Sienna. She’d thought if anybody could take Adam down, it would have been her.

Now it’s all up to Blake. Adam has to run out of aura eventually. She just has to wear him down. She raises Gambol Shroud again, and separates it into sword and bladed sheath.

This time, she lets him come at her. She blocks and parries when she can, uses her semblance when she can’t. She avoids landing any direct hits on Wilt, for obvious semblance-related reasons, but consequently doesn’t land much on Adam himself either. But she lands a few, and her aura’s… well, it’s higher than it would be if she took the hits without her semblance.

For a few terrifying moments, Blake dares to let herself believe she can actually win. Then her sheath goes flying, skittering right up to the edge of the cliff. Blake risks a glance, just long enough to feel relief that it’s not gone before Blush connects with her face, sending her flying.

Her aura doesn’t break, but she’s taken a lot more damage than she’d like. She’s been wearing herself down just as much as she’s been wearing down Adam. And now… she scrambles backwards, even as Adam advances. Her hand finds her sword, even as he raises his.

“You’re  _ selfish! _ ” Adam shouts. He charges. 

Blake barely blocks in time, and in an instant she’s kicked backwards and back on the ground. Before she can even get up, another swing of Wilt sends her skidding back even further.

“You’re a  _ coward!” _ Adam continues.

“You’re delusional,” Blake replies.

She forces herself, if not up, at least to be able to face him. The tip of Adam’s sword finds the scar he left. His hair and blade glow red, and he swings.

One moment, Blake’s raising her sword to block. The next, it’s gone flying in pieces, and she has nothing left to defend herself. Adam looks at her. For a second, Blake swears she sees a flicker of movement behind Adam, but—no. Nothing. If there was something there, it’s gone.

Adam raises his sword again. Blake pushes herself backwards, feeling for something. The fragments of her sword, the sheath,  _ something _ . Anything. 

Her hand finds something sharp, and before she can even raise it, Adam goes down.  _ All _ of Adam goes down, not just Wilt, with a yell of surprise and pain. Blake stumbles to her feet, and looks up to see who just threw something at Adam, because it sure wasn’t Yang.

The woman she sees standing there, attaching a new fire dart to the end of her whip, is _supposed_ to be _dead._ _Adam_ killed her. Blake wouldn’t have trusted the news if she’d heard it from him, but she’d heard it from Ilia, and she trusts Ilia. Ilia wouldn’t have lied about this, wouldn’t have lied about this even when she was on Adam’s side. And yet… 

“What do we have here?” Sienna Khan asks, catching the end of her whip in her free hand briefly. “A coward and traitor to all those you claimed to fight for… and Blake. Hi, Blake. Your parents say hi too. You okay?”

“I’ll be alright,” Blake says. Not  _ actually _ answering the question, but Sienna can probably see she’s not okay currently. Who would be? Another part of what Sienna said registers then, and she continues, “Wait. My parents? They know you’re alive? How  _ are _ you alive? I thought you were—”

“You’re  _ dead!” _ Adam yells. He pushes himself to his feet with Wilt, points the sword at Sienna. She doesn’t even flinch. “You’re… I  _ killed you! _ ”

“Are you sure?” Sienna asks, almost smiling. “Didn’t you know cats have nine lives? You’ll have to try a little harder than that. For both of us.”

With that, she charges. Adam swings, sword glowing red, but he isn’t her target. She rolls under his blade and back to her feet on the other side, positions herself between Adam and Blake, and, throwing the end of Cerberus to the side, spins it in the air. 

She’s bluffing about the nine lives thing. At least, Blake  _ thinks _ she’s bluffing about nine lives being a feline faunus thing, Blake’s pretty sure she’d know. But… Sienna specifically… is  _ that _ her semblance? Adam, and therefore most of the White Fang, had always assumed that ‘Grudge’ was something relating to fighting. Adam in particular had theorized that it made her stronger when she damaged the auras of others, but Sienna herself had never confirmed or denied it, and Blake had never thought that really fit the name.

So maybe… Sienna has nine lives? It kind of fits. There was that one time, when Blake was much younger, back when her dad still led the White Fang. She’d been with her mom and Sienna, getting food when they were attacked. Sienna had told them both to run, she’d hold them off, and she did. Except, when Blake was being carried over her mom’s shoulder, right before they’d turned the corner, she thought she’d seen Sienna get shot, in the face, with a shotgun.

But Mom hadn’t been concerned. She’d assured Blake that Sienna was fine, explained what aura was to her that night. And Sienna had turned up completely unharmed midway through said explanation, so Blake had forgotten about it.

Until now.

“I’ll explain later,” Sienna mutters under her breath, not looking back at Blake. “Can you fight?”

_ I’ll explain later _ could mean any number of things, and right now Blake has more important problems. Blake looks at what she has in her hands, finds it’s the half of Gambol Shroud with the handle still attached. She shifts it into a gun, and nods. 

Then she remembers that Sienna’s keeping her eyes on Adam and says out loud, “Yeah. My aura’s still up.”

Not full – not even half, anymore – but any amount of projected aura can block a would-be fatal attack if she’s careful. It’s better than nothing.

“This,” Sienna tells Adam, “is the part where I’d tell you to leave… if I didn’t want you dead just as much as you wanted  _ me _ dead. I’m sure Blake could have killed you herself. But with both of us…” The wry smile returns. “Any last words? I don’t suppose you plan on apologizing for  _ thoroughly _ fucking up the White Fang?”

“I was going to be the hero the faunus  _ deserved _ ,” Adam hisses. “You  _ should _ be blaming who you’re protecting.”

“Of course. Blake, her family, the Schnee Dust Company, everyone. Everyone but you. Clearly  _ you’re _ blameless.”

“Blake and her  _ parents _ abandoned our cause, and it looks like you have too. Clearly I was right to kill you when I did, and I’ll kill you as many times as it takes for you to stay  _ dead! _ As for the SDC, who you  _ apparently _ think are  _ blameless _ now—”

“That’s not what either of us thinks and you know it. One of Blake’s friends is a Schnee heiress, and even  _ she _ doesn’t think they’re blameless.”

“Ex-heiress, her father disowned her for being a decent person,” Blake corrects, “and… wait. How did you…”

She trails off. Not because of anything Sienna said or did, not because of anything Blake herself said or did, but because in the time it took Blake to say that, Adam’s reached up and pulled off the strip of black cloth hiding his eyes. It flutters to the ground in front of him, but by then nobody’s looking at it.

Blake had never seen Adam without something there, usually his mask. Judging by the way Sienna tenses, she hadn’t either. Not until now. Now, Adam’s face is fully visible, revealing one blue eye, and one bloodied eye under a brand reading  _ SDC _ .

Schnee Dust Company.

“I’ve survived worse,” Adam all but spits, returning his free hand to his sword. “And I’ll do it again. You aren’t the only one with new friends, my darling.”

“Don’t call me that.” Blake steps up next to Sienna just in time to see her visibly wince.

“That was not a confirmation I needed,” Sienna mutters. “You’ll be okay?”

“Once he’s dead.”

Adam doesn’t attack. Instead, he raises his left hand, and whistles. Then he looks to Blake again. “People hurt me  _ long _ before we met, Blake. All sorts of people, in all sorts of ways. But no one hurt me quite like—”

Sienna throws a dart at him. He parries it, eyes narrowed, but shuts up for now. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, that makes it easier to hear the footsteps behind them.

Blake whirls around, gun raised, to see… a  _ human? _ Tall, wielding a greatsword with a robotic arm noticeably longer than his flesh one, clad in dirty blue and white and gold. Definitely a human, and clearly not on her side or Sienna’s. Apparently on  _ Adam’s _ . He’d willingly work with a human?

Well, he had to, to work for Salem. But this is… Blake finds herself, quite suddenly, at a loss for words.

“So Adam, are you interested in men now, or…?” Sienna gestures vaguely at the newcomer, whose features morph into a scowl. “Good for you. I’m still going to have to kill you, though.”

Adam makes a disgusted noise. “Absolutely  _ not _ . Care to introduce yourself, Ballas?”

“I believe ‘the one who’s going to kill you’ will suffice,” Ballas says mildly. “Although I would like to know where the extra came from.”

“Oh, me?” Sienna asks. “Sienna Khan, rightful High Leader of the White Fang. I would say it’s a pleasure but it’s  _ really _ not. Your friend can confirm I’m  _ very _ difficult to kill.”

“So am I,” Ballas says. “Shall we put both to the test?” 

Without waiting for an answer, he charges in with a wide horizontal swing meant to knock both Sienna and Blake off the back of the arch. Blake flashes out of the way with a shadow clone, while Sienna ducks and swings her whip toward the human’s ankles. It bends around one leg to slice against the back of his other, and a twitch of the whip detaches the fire dart at the tip to explode beneath him. 

Ballas jumps to the side and engages Blake, leaving Sienna to deal with Adam. She’d love to know what his aura levels were at, how much damage Blake had managed to do before she arrived, but there's no way to tell except to keep hammering at him and wait for his shield to break. 

She can check her own, though. Her semblance often messed with her internal sense of her aura’s strength, since not all of it was really available to block with. A lightning dart slips past Adam’s sword and she takes the chance to step back and slide her scroll from her pocket. 

Immediately, from farther down the arch, Ballas takes his robotic hand off his sword and thrusts it out toward Sienna. Her scroll’s screen flickers before she can take a good look at it, and the aura meter is replaced by the single letter W in fancy script. 

Well, so much for that. Sienna knows she’s not in danger yet, and she can live without the detail. She pockets the device and returns to the fight with Adam. 

On the other side, Blake’s ears prick up as she hears something new, over the sound of the waterfall. Something she recognizes, particularly from spending half an hour riding said something earlier. Bumblebee, Yang’s bike. Which means… Yang must have figured out something’s wrong. She’s on her way.

Maybe… the others are fine, then, if they don’t need Yang’s help. The last thing Blake wants is to put Yang in this situation again, but… well, Yang’s putting herself in it. She’s stronger. They all are. And against someone new as well as Adam… 

A glance at Sienna confirms she’s heard it too.

“You say  _ I’m _ a traitor, that I’m selfish, but look at you!” Blake draws Ballas over until he and Adam stand next to each other, and aims her gun firmly for the two faces she’d never before seen. She’s tired, and it’s starting to show. But if she can just buy herself a little more time… 

“You  _ hate _ humans. You kill them whenever you get the chance. Now look at you, working alongside one, abandoning even your own twisted view of the White Fang just to get your personal revenge!”

“It didn’t stop him at Haven, either,” Sienna observes. “Do you even know what you’re working toward? The boy I  _ thought _ I knew would never have been content to be another’s pawn. Particularly not a human’s.”

“You misunderstand,” Ballas says. “Our arrangement is one of mutual benefit. You see, Blake, you weren’t the only one to leave your partner for a woman.”

“Wait, what?” Blake asks. She shifts her aim from him over to Adam. “You think that Yang and I—I mean, sure, I like her a lot, but there wasn’t anything there at Beacon! There still isn’t anything there now!”

“Blake, if you’re telling the truth,” Sienna says, “please tell me you inherited your father’s good taste in women  _ without _ his complete inability to act on his feelings.” She slowly backs away from Adam and Ballas, and Blake follows. 

“Enough talk!” Adam shouts. His hair flashes red briefly as he goes for his sword. “It’s time you both got what you deserved.”

He unsheathes his sword again just in time to take about four hundred pounds of motorcycle directly to the face. Yang backflips off it and lands on the arch behind her allies, Ember Celica at the ready. Adam, unfortunately, rolls to a stop before falling off the edge.

In an instant, Ballas lunges between Sienna and Blake, wielding that crooked greatsword one-handed with his biological left arm. Yang’s eyes go wide. She blocks with her own prosthetic right, and shoots at Ballas with her other’s gauntlet. Ballas disengages and blocks.

Sienna looks to Blake as if to say  _ well? What are you waiting for? _ She runs in, chain whip spinning. Blake does too, only for Ballas to turn in place with a wide swipe at both of them.

Blake shoots, aiming for the point where his arm connects to his body. A flicker of projected aura protects him from Blake’s attack, unfortunately, and Sienna’s attempt to hook the handle of his sword and disarm him with her whip goes similarly poorly. 

Yang punches at him and Ballas catches her fist with a loud clang of metal against metal. Both stagger back away from the other, blinking rapidly. The sword nearly slips from Ballas’s grip, but not quite. He stands there looking almost stunned, ignoring the equally wide open Yang next to him. 

Blake can’t spare a glance back, but she heard the clash. She faces down Adam with her broken sword, Sienna by her side – and then something hits her from behind. A pair of bullets, coinciding with the audible shots from Yang’s gauntlets. Blake staggers forward, thankfully while Adam is distracted slashing at Sienna. That was some bad luck, missing Adam and striking Blake instead. It had to be. 

Blake disengages and looks over to see Ballas with his sword sheathed across his back, locked in a punching match with Yang. He strikes out with his long right arm and Yang doesn’t deflect it – it almost looks like she leans into his fist, but that wouldn’t make sense. The expected dim flash of yellow aura absorbing an impact never comes, and Yang reels back with blood now dripping from her nose. 

Suddenly Yang reaches across her body, and her prosthetic arm drops to the ground. She throws herself forward at Ballas’s feet and grabs his ankle, and Ballas freezes for a moment and shakes his head. He grabs his sword off his back and makes a stab down at Yang, who only narrowly rolls out of the way. 

By now Blake has caught her breath, and she’s seen enough. She runs to put herself between Ballas and Yang, who welcomes the reprieve and tries to circle around them to take back her arm from where it rests near the edge of the arch. But between the two pairs of combatants is the worst place to stand, and she is forced to dodge stray swings from both sides. 

Finally it’s Sienna’s whip that extends along the edge to strike Yang’s lost arm, freezing its own tip to the metal and pulling it back. Yang catches it and installs it back on her shoulder, and yells her thanks over to Sienna. They swap places, letting Sienna help Blake and leaving Yang to block a wild strike from Adam.

“You and I,” Adam mutters, “have unfinished business.”

“Funny,” Yang replies, “I was thinking the same thing. I thought you hated humans. Hey, if you like this one so much, why don’t you stop coming after Blake and me and just date each other?”

Across the arch, Sienna’s ears swivel back to hear her, and she smiles. Blake seemed to have picked a decent partner, even if she’s not faunus. 

Adam reacts to the suggestion about as well as expected, which is to say he attacks even more ferociously. Yang blocks and shoots, blocks and shoots, but her shots are only absorbed into Adam’s blade. 

“Yang! His semblance is like yours!” Blake yells before she can feed it anymore. “He absorbs energy with his sword, stores it up, and then sends it back when he’s ready!”

Across the battlefield, Yang audibly groans. “He gets to dish out damage without having to feel it? That’s just cheap!”

Certainly one way of putting it. Despite herself, despite everything, Blake smiles for a moment because if that isn’t  _ the _ most Yang-specific way of describing it. But there’s more. 

“Don’t let that guy touch you!” Yang warns, wiping away a bit of blood from her face. “It must be his semblance! He–” 

She never finishes, as Adam hits her again. She jumps back into the fight, figuring that was enough at least. They can both keep the other’s warning in mind. 

Suddenly Blake can’t worry about her anymore, because Ballas is running toward her with his greatsword again. She blocks it. He disengages again before Sienna can hook his sword, dodges a thrown ice dart and blocks several shots from Blake. Blake looks around briefly, finds Gambol Shroud’s scabbard on the other side of Ballas. She runs for it, but when he moves to strike she uses her semblance to dodge past him and grab her scabbard.

It’s not Gambol Shroud still, not entirely. But she can fix the blade when she survives this, and she has  _ some _ options now. She strikes down with the scabbard, making Ballas pitch forward and stumble. The end of Sienna’s whip wraps around his wrist, and Sienna  _ yanks _ .

Ballas goes flying for the edge. Sienna activates the darts at the end of her whip, freezing his metal hand to his sword before pulling it back. At the last moment, Ballas stabs the blade of his sword into the rock face, and reaches back up with his free hand.

Blake looks to Sienna, a clear question in her eyes.

“I’ll handle him,” Sienna says. “You go help your girlfriend.”

Blake nods wordlessly. She turns, just in time for a blast of red energy to slam Yang backwards and past them, past Ballas. When the dust clears, Yang’s still standing there, prosthetic arm visibly scarred, nose still streaming blood, but she’s still in one piece. Her aura’s still up. Her aura isn’t even flickering.

Adam, for his part, uses the time to run for Ballas and offer him a hand up. Ballas takes it. Their eyes meet. Nobody’s taking advantage of this opening. Yang is breathing heavily and recovering from the hit, while Sienna is reattaching new darts to her whip.

So Blake raises Gambol Shroud. Morphs it into a gun. Prepares to shoot. But before she can,  _ something _ in Adam’s expression changes. In the blink of an eye, he drops Ballas’s hand and goes for his sword.

Ballas’s eyes go wide. He tries to dodge, but dodging is hard to do when you’re hanging from a cliff by one hand. He takes the brunt of the hit from Adam’s sword. Red aura visibly flickers over Ballas’s gray-blue clothes. 

“You—” Ballas begins, and is promptly kicked in the face. He falls, shock and anger clearly visible in his eyes even as he goes beyond Blake’s view. His sword goes with him, the ice sticking it to his hand proving stronger than the pull of the rock crevasse. 

Blake shoots, finally. Adam sidesteps rather than blocking. 

“Good riddance,” Adam mutters. “I never liked him anyway. You didn’t really think I would work with a human, did you? Of course not.”

“I  _ did _ think you’d have the sense to save the betrayal for after the fight,” Sienna says with a shrug. “You  _ really _ think you can take three people at once?”

“A scared little girl, a human, and someone too blind to see when sacrifice is necessary.” Adam swaps Wilt to his other hand, takes Blush in his right, and smiles cruelly. “None of you stand a chance.”

He charges. In close quarters, Sienna is at a disadvantage. She’s forced to retreat, leaving Blake and Yang to take him on. Strike after strike, punch after punch. Adam still blocks a lot, but they slowly wear him down, to the point where he  _ has _ to be running low on aura. And then, Blake moves just a little too slow. A kick to the side leaves her aura flickering, almost gone, and with Adam now able to focus on a single target, Yang soon goes flying past her.

Blake forces herself to her feet, finds a hand helping her up. She takes it, just in time to see Adam grab the end of Sienna’s whip and heave, sending her flying off into the trees. Blake’s eyes go wide even as Adam turns to face them.

“Now, it’s just the three of us,” Adam says. “And you’re not looking so good. You think you can protect her, Yang? When you can’t even protect yourself?”

Yang lets go of Blake’s hand, even as her own starts to shake. She opens her mouth to yell a retort, only for it to be cut off by Blake slipping her hand back in Yang’s and giving it a squeeze.

“She’s not protecting me,” Blake tells him. “And I’m not protecting her. We’re protecting each other.”

“Then you’ll die for each other,” Adam replies almost conversationally.

He charges. So do they. Adam hits Blake back with the flat of his sword, breaking her aura and sending her and her weapon flying. He turns to do the same to Yang, only to be greeted with red eyes, flaming hair, and a metal arm that’s grabbed his sword by the blade. A gauntleted fist slams into his shoulder and he loses his grip, and before he can react, Yang has taken the thin red blade in both hands and snapped it over her knee. 

Adam grabs his scabbard, morphs it into a gun, only to have that punched away too. The next hit lands right in his gut, sending him flying into the ground so hard it creates a trench. His aura breaks even as he stumbles to his feet.

No weapons left, he looks around wildly. His gaze finds the handled half of Gambol Shroud at the same time Blake’s does. In an instant, they both run for it.

Blake grabs it first, and thrusts it up into his chest. The other half comes through from his back—Yang. Yang, whose aura runs out right as Adam looks down, hands suddenly shaking.

“Oh,” Adam manages. 

Yang withdraws her blade first, then Blake, and she steps out of the way as Adam stumbles forward. But despite his body’s shock, he retains enough consciousness to lurch to the side and grab Blake’s wrist. He stares at it intently and his broken aura flickers faintly again, but she pulls away. Adam drops to his knees at the edge of the cliff, lingers there just a moment longer… 

And he falls. In an instant, the bloodied blade Blake’s holding does too, and she chokes back a sob. It’s futile. She keeps sobbing. There’s a hand on her shoulder, then arms wrapped around her. Yang.

“He’s gone,” Yang says softly. “You’re free. We’re free.”

Blake can’t find the words to explain, and isn’t sure she wants to. She just sobs even harder, leans into Yang’s embrace, and just lets herself be held. They’re free. They’re  _ free _ .

It’s finally… over.


	7. Be Gay, Do Crime

Sienna has just enough aura left to cancel her semblance’s timer, only to promptly set it again. It’s been close to half an hour, close enough that it could easily go off at any time now, and her memories resetting in the middle of finishing Adam off would be just the opening he’d need to finish  _ her _ off.

Blake and her yellow girlfriend—Yang, Sienna recalls, and apparently Blake  _ did _ inherit Ghira’s inability to talk to girls about feelings—can handle him alone, at least for the time it takes Sienna to reset her semblance. After that, she charges back in, Cerberus at the ready, only to skid to a stop at the edge of the forest and cancel her semblance all over again.

Blake and Yang both look utterly spent, but more importantly, they’re both alive. Adam is nowhere to be seen, but it’s not hard to guess where he is now. A trail of blood goes from the broken halves of Blake’s sword, past where the girls are holding each other and sobbing into each other’s arms, and right up to the edge of the cliff.

A quick glance off the edge confirms it. Adam’s dead. He doesn’t get nine lives. He doesn’t even get two. He only had the one, and yet he did such a good job of fucking up so many that weren’t his own.

Sienna allows herself a moment of silence for the boy she thought she knew, but no more. That boy died long before today. Perhaps long before Sienna even knew him. It’s far too clear now, in retrospect, that he was  _ very _ good at lying.

She would have preferred to end Adam herself, but if anyone deserved to do it more, it was Blake. Blake, who’s currently crying into the arms of her should-be girlfriend, and neither she nor Yang seem particularly aware of the fact that Sienna’s returned.

Sienna settles into a crouch to wait, quietly wraps her whip around her forearm as she does. There’s some things that need to be said here, some apologies that need to be made and Sienna didn’t come all this way not to make them.

So, she waits, for a time, in silence. She waits until Blake pulls away from Yang, wipes her eyes with a mumbled word of thanks, and looks up. And freezes.

“Sienna,” Blake says carefully, evenly. Her voice wavers a little, even as she gets to her feet. “You’re… still here.”

“If Adam’s coup couldn’t kill me, I doubt a tree could,” Sienna says with more amusement than is probably appropriate. “I know you have some questions. We don’t have long before you’ll need to return to your friends, but I can answer some of them here and now.”

“Uh, question,” Yang says, raising her robotic hand. Her other is still holding Blake’s, and Blake seems to have completely forgotten about this fact. “Who are you? How do you know Blake?”

“Sienna Khan, High Leader of the White Fang.”

“Adam’s boss,” Blake supplies, looking away.

“Formerly,” Sienna agrees. Despite her best efforts, maybe even because of them, her ears start to go flat. “Blake, I’m sorry. If I had known—”

“I honestly thought you did.”

“Not until after you left. And even then I wasn’t sure, but I—” She casts her gaze down. “I never should have trusted him like I did. I’m sorry. I let his enthusiasm for the cause blind me to what he was really doing. But it was never even for the cause, really, only for him and his own hate.”

“I… won’t say it’s fine. Because it’s not. But you helped us kill him, you helped us kill Ballas, and Yang and I might have been able to take Adam on our own but two of them? You helped. That counts for a lot.” Blake smiles a little. “And I’m glad to know you’re  _ not _ dead. Although… how?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve explained it to anyone fully, and never to a human.” Sienna’s gaze flicks to Yang, then back. “But… Blake. I think you have some idea already, don’t you?”

“Everyone in the Fang knew your semblance was  _ called _ Grudge, just… not what it did. Adam always thought hurting others made you stronger, but if I’m being honest that never made much sense. And you said something about nine lives?”

“That was just to piss off Adam. I have a lot more than nine.”

“Holy shit,” Yang says. Yeah, for a human, Sienna likes her.

“As long as I set a timer in advance, no matter what happens to me, when the clock runs out I revert completely to the state I was in when I set it.” Sienna grimaces. “Including, unfortunately, memory. But to be able to undo  _ anything at all _ … A few hours worth of memories is a small price to pay, in the long run.”

“So Adam… he…” Blake’s ears fold.

“He did,” Sienna confirms. “I remember the time leading up to it, and then waking up ready for burial. Always a fun experience.” She clears her throat. “So. I’d appreciate it if you’d keep this between us, as well as news of my survival. The White Fang branch in Atlas should be willing to help you, and I intend to go there soon, but if you get there first…”

“We won’t tell them you’re alive,” Yang says.

“Thank you.  _ Don’t _ make me regret trusting you.” That aside, she returns her attention to Blake. “You remember where the old safehouse is? It’s still in use, or it was before the borders closed. Should still be now, regional commander is the competent sort. Plus she always  _ hated _ Adam and will be very glad to hear he’s dead.”

“Different code phrase?”

Sienna nods. “Obviously. Same book. The last one before the borders closed was ‘a silent fury no torment could tame.’”

“‘A silent fury no torment could tame,’” Blake repeats. “Got it. Thanks.”

“You’d better get back to your friends. I don’t know  _ what’s _ going on over there but it seems to have quieted down. Although, Blake? I never expected you to end up with a human.”

Sienna shouldn’t be anywhere near as amused as she is by Blake’s immediate flush.

“Uh, we’re not, um,” Yang stammers, suddenly letting go of Blake’s hand. “Yeah. Not that you’re not pretty and all, not that I would mind dating you but uh. Yeah. We’re not.”

“Yeah, um. What she said,” Blake says, equally embarrassed. Both girls pointedly look away from each other and from Sienna.

“Are you  _ kidding me?  _ It’s blindingly obvious to anyone who looks at you that you’re both head over heels for each other. And somehow, you haven’t realized it yourselves.” Sienna sighs, shakes her head. “I suppose you also haven’t noticed that your sister and the Schnee girl are just as much in love as you are? I barely know any of you and I can see it! Do you have any idea how many times in the past two weeks I nearly gave myself away because of how frustrated I was, watching you all be so oblivious?”

“You’ve been following us?” Yang asks, eyes narrowing.

“No, I’ve been following Adam… who was following you, yes.” Sienna clears her throat, and deflects from one uncomfortable conversation to one that’s equally uncomfortable for the others present. “By the way, Yang. If you ever hurt Blake, her parents are too nice to break you. But I’m not.”

* * *

Sienna doesn’t know for  _ sure _ what the rest of Blake’s group had been getting up to, but whatever it was, it seems to have attracted quite a few Grimm. More than a few – she can already see airships taking to the skies from the military base. They seem to have it under control, but  _ maybe _ it’s a good idea to take her time in getting back to Argus. A lot of tiny Grimm is still a  _ lot _ of Grimm.

She is already  _ so _ not getting involved in that, and then as if to confirm it,  _ something _ roars. Whatever it is, probably a Grimm—it’s  _ big _ , and it’s  _ loud. _ Sienna detours to the edge of the forest, comes to a stop at the cliffside, and…

Well, she was right about it being Grimm, and being big. It’s some kind of aquatic, vaguely dolphin-like creature, and it’s… now it’s breathing  _ fire? _

If Sienna already hadn’t had every intention of not getting involved in that mess, now she’s seriously considering leaving Argus and attempting to find another way into Atlas. But Argus is, unfortunately, the best shot she’s got at getting to Atlas anytime soon. And that military base can’t be  _ completely _ useless.

She’ll just take her time in getting back to Argus, in case they are.

That aside, she tugs her cloak closer and turns away. She’s barely walked two steps when something flashes at the edge of her vision. She turns, rushes back in time to see a bright silver light give way to… was that giant, fire-breathing Grimm turned to  _ stone? _

Something about that seems familiar, but Sienna can’t quite place it. She watches, for a moment, to see what happens to it. Tries not to think too hard about what it means that the giant mech came from further down the coast, closer to where Blake and Yang had run off to.

Wait. That mech was missing an arm. Those kids did  _ that? _ Definitely worth keeping an eye on them in the future, and Sienna suspects they’ll have found a way to make their trip to Atlas work even with the radar still up. Which is all the more reason for her to find a way to Atlas.

Time to get back to Argus.

* * *

“So. You’re a smuggler, right?” Sienna corners a scared-looking human man in an Atlas uniform just before he can step out onto the pier leading to the military base. 

The man swallows hard and takes a step back, only for Sienna to follow him and maintain her uncomfortably close presence. “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about, ma’am. I’m an Atlas military supply contractor, that’s it.”

Sienna rolls her eyes. “Oh, just admit it. I’m here to hire you, not report you.” She puts a hand on the man’s shoulder and guides him further off the path, so that none of his fellows arriving for work at the same time might overhear. “You make regular trips in and out of Atlas, right? Carrying materials to the outpost here, and the occasional sensitive report or two back. Along with all the Dust, of course.”

“Okay, okay. Yes, I smuggle Dust. Do you need to buy some? I have a little left from my last shipment.” Yes! Her educated guess paid off. While there are certainly many reasons to be scared of this base’s commander, this man had looked a lot more on edge than the rest. 

“Other way, actually. I need you to get something  _ into _ Atlas. Specifically, me.” 

The smuggler grimaces and shakes his head. “No can do, miss. Dust only. Security’s been strict ever since the borders closed, and then when that Schnee girl disappeared they upped it again. They’ve put in special scanners meant specifically to stop human trafficking.”

Sienna is intrigued. “Really? How do they work, exactly?”

Her question is met only with narrowed eyes. “There’s no fooling them, if that’s what you’re thinking. And no, I can’t just say ‘don’t scan that box’. They board the ship with these big two-pronged things and wave them all over, and if they find anything living in the cargo hold, that’ll get us both arrested.” 

“Anything living? Do you know who I am?” Sienna turns to put her back to the path, then pushes the hood off her head and opens the front of her cloak. “Sienna Khan, High Leader of the White Fang. Didn’t you hear the news? I’ve been dead for months now.” 

The smuggler gulps as yet another reason to be afraid is revealed to him. He glances behind Sienna, but no one is around to rescue him. 

Sienna flips her hood back up. “Now, jokes aside, I’ve gotten past that kind of scan before. You take me on your ship and I  _ guarantee _ there won’t be any fuss. I won’t even have to kill the inspectors.”

Her confidence seems to inspire some new bravery in the man, or at least some new greed. “How much would you be offering for this trip? One way, to be clear.”

“I only need it one way. And how does forty thousand lien sound?” Sienna pulls out a stack of thin cards to prove she has the money. It’s a lot, and most of what she has on her, but honestly on the cheaper side for a smuggling run. Especially one through a closed border. 

But business must be running thin these days, because the man readily accepts her offer. The details of getting her  _ onto _ the ship are sorted easily enough: a spare military uniform with a hat to cover her ears isn’t hard to sneak out of the base. Then it’s just a matter of helping him load the empty crates that will be filled in Mantle, and not coming out again when the job is done. 

Child’s play, compared to some of the operations she’s been on. And in the chaos after the Grimm invasion, even easier. Before long they’re cleared for launch, and Sienna leaves the continent of Anima behind. 

* * *

The ship intercom crackles to life. “Security’s coming our way. You’ve got maybe two minutes. Whatever it is you’re going to do, do it  _ now _ , and if it doesn’t work you’re on your own and I don’t know how you got there.”

“It’ll work,” Sienna says, mostly to herself if anything. She gets to her feet, walks quickly yet purposefully across the airship to an empty supply crate. It’s a tight fit, but she can work with it. So she does, pulling the lid across the top and shutting herself in near complete darkness.

If she had the time, she’d suffocate eventually. But she doesn’t have the time to be anything but quick and effective. Her hand finds her belt pouch, opens it, feels around for a very specific dart she’d never quite gotten around to refilling after that damned squeaky gate. She wrenches her eyes shut for no reason in particular, and sets her semblance for fifteen minutes. It’s on the longer side, but better safe than sorry.

That done, there’s no point in stalling. She sets the blade of the dart against her neck, brings down her projected aura, and slices.

It’s never  _ not _ disorienting to wake up after her semblance triggers, even if it was planned ahead of time. It seems to have worked, although she doubts her spare dart’s the only thing covered in blood now. She pockets it for now, cautiously raises the lid of the crate, and slips out. Her borrowed Atlas uniform is covered in blood, stained again by the puddle she left in the crate even after her reset, and she quickly changes back to her normal clothing and cloak. 

She knocks twice on the door to the front cabin, and the intercom buzzes to life in response. “Glad you could join us! I was just about to call and check in for a  _ third _ time. We’ll be in Mantle in fifteen minutes. Do yourself a favor, and stay  _ well _ away from anything Schnee-related once we are.”

“That was the plan,” Sienna replies.

Or, that was the plan barring perhaps just a little bit of arson, if she finds the opportunity. If not, she can always make one. There’s always time to cause trouble on  _ that _ front.

* * *

“So,” the smuggler asks almost casually, “how  _ did _ you fool the scanners?”

“Nothing you can replicate, if that’s what you think you’re asking,” Sienna says in return. “You don’t want to know the specifics.”

He shrugs. “You never know, maybe I do. You’re sure it’s not something I could pull off? Handy trick, that.”

“I am  _ completely _ sure it’s not something you could pull off.” Not successfully, in any case.

“Right. Well, give me a few minutes to make sure everything’s in order. Not that I think you took anything, but, well. You  _ are _ the leader of the White Fang and all.” 

He heads back in. Sienna waits impatiently, a hand on her whip beneath her cloak, and only half because he insisted. The other half is to see the look on his face when he emerges, and how pale he looks.

“I, er… Don’t suppose what you did had anything to do with the blood in one of my crates,” he says uneasily, in a tone that makes it abundantly clear he thinks it did.

“If you really want to know?” Sienna makes a noncommittal noise. “Let’s just say the scanners worked as they were meant to. All I did was make sure there wasn’t anything living in your cargo hold when security came through. Now, I’m perfectly happy to leave it at that… unless you’d like a demonstration?”

The smuggler takes a moment to process this. Sienna is perhaps more pleased than she should be when he takes a step back. “I need a drink.”

Sienna flips him the last of his payment. “Thanks for the ride.”

With that, she leaves the smuggler and his ship behind in favor of the poorly-lit streets of Mantle. Poorly lit, of course, but by no means deserted, and Sienna avoids people and sticks to the shadows. It’s not hard, not when there’s a society as downtrodden as this. And who, of course, is to blame?

All thoughts of hatred and vengeance in the general direction of Atlas and one soulless man named Jacques Schnee give way to something else, however, when she hears voices. Specifically, one she recognizes, although she can’t quite place where. She  _ could _ keep going the way she is, and pay Cressa a long overdue visit. Or, Cressa can handle herself for a bit longer, and whatever this is… whatever this is, Sienna has a bad feeling about it.

So she peers around the corner. She doesn’t recognize the human in a plum-colored coat, face shadowed by an umbrella. She does, however, recognize who he’s talking to, if only from his oversized prosthetic arm.

Ballas, was it? Looks like that plunge into the river didn’t kill him after all. Annoying, but not much of a problem. She can tail him until she gets the chance to finish the job, and neither Blake nor Yang, nor whoever else he was angry with, will be any the wiser.

It’ll just be a little longer before she gets back to the White Fang. Dealing with someone like him, someone like Adam?  _ Particularly _ someone like Adam that’s a human? Protecting people from injustice is what the White Fang always stood for, after all. Despite what Adam had come to believe, the goal was always equality between Remnant’s two species, not a reversal of their positions. And in this case, with someone like  _ him _ on the loose, it’s worth the effort to stop him even if his target is also human. Cressa and the Fang will still be there for her later.

For now, Sienna is back on the hunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Sienna (and her new target) will also appear in Vox Faunus, the Volume 7 rewrite featuring many Schneenanigans, possibly a bit of arson, and quite a few more Warframe characters.


End file.
